tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508Fri, 18 Jan 2019 10:55:23 +0000eventInstitute for Leadership and Sustainabilityhttp://iflas.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (University of Cumbria)Blogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-973806956401944954Wed, 26 Dec 2018 11:33:00 +00002018-12-29T05:05:20.517-08:00Post-Civilisation - IFLAS Occasional Paper 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.99px; orphans: 2; overflow: visible; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="m_-7693540668432586159u-quote m_-7693540668432586159u-quote--topPost m_-7693540668432586159is-expanded" style="height: 357px;"><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19.99px; overflow: visible;"><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">IFLAS is pleased that philosopher, Chair of Green House thinktank, and leading member of Extinction Rebellion, Dr Rupert Read has contributed <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://lifeworth.com/IFLAS_OP_3_rr_whatistobedone.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1545908919721000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEArXVBCKm50cxgo7z9UK_NRSqVDQ" href="http://lifeworth.com/IFLAS_OP_3_rr_whatistobedone.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">our 3rd Occasional Paper.</a></div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Dr Read takes as his starting point the failure of political processes to respond to the challenges of dangerous man-made climate change that have been understood since the 1970s, arguing that the Paris agreements of 2015 are "absolutely nowhere near enough", and in any case stand "actually in stark contradiction to what [the countries] are actually planning to do".</div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Occasional Paper is a referenced and edited version of a talk Dr Read gave at the University of Cambridge in 2018. In his estimation, what is required to 'get around' the current failure, is 'something completely unprecedented'. In the face of a total collapse of civilisation we can either talk about transforming our existing civilisation or building a new one out off the wreckage of the old. Whichever way, the civilisation we inhabit is finished: because if something survives from it, that something will be utterly different from what we are used to.</div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOaPWGUuUIY/XCNlobeP4UI/AAAAAAAABhQ/ciJq7d6yfNUAi_4NM2lg1DykYIGCFxBVACLcBGAs/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Those are themes he has explored elsewhere, but this talk was addressed especially to young people, such as students. He had a range of suggestions for them,<span class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>starting with "Wake up!", starting a new honest conversation about our fears, and imagining a successor civilisation. We need to build lifeboats while implementing the 'holding actions' described by Joanna Macey to hold the damage at bay and slow it down. His final suggestion is to stop: to reflect rather than reacting only from anger or shock.<br /><br />Along the way, Dr. Read positions his thinking in close relation to the “<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1545908919721000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4pSg1Azef0qyW-vOjjH2KlH0T5A" href="http://lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Deep Adaptation</a>”&nbsp;paper of Prof. Jem Bendell’s, which was the 2nd IFLAS Occasional Paper. IFLAS issues Occasional Papers to stimulate wider and more rapid debate than is possible through peer-reviewed academic journal. Feedback is welcomed to inform revised papers for subsequent publication. To engage with others on these topics, consider the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12091253" target="_blank">Deep Adaptation LinkedIn group</a>. The latest thoughts from Prof Bendell are available via <a href="http://www.deepadaptation.info/" target="_blank">www.deepadaptation.info&nbsp;</a><br /><br /></div><div class="m_-7693540668432586159defanged163-" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class="yj6qo"></div><div class="adL"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOaPWGUuUIY/XCNlobeP4UI/AAAAAAAABhQ/ciJq7d6yfNUAi_4NM2lg1DykYIGCFxBVACLcBGAs/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: #0066cc; float: left; font-family: &amp;quot; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 12px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOaPWGUuUIY/XCNlobeP4UI/AAAAAAAABhQ/ciJq7d6yfNUAi_4NM2lg1DykYIGCFxBVACLcBGAs/s1600/images.jpeg" style="cursor: move;" /></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div></div><div class="adL" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19.99px; overflow: visible;"></div></div><div class="adL" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19.99px; overflow: visible;"></div></div><div class="adL" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19.99px; overflow: visible;"></div></div><div class="adL" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-stretch: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.99px; orphans: 2; overflow: visible; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/12/post-civilisation-iflas-occasional.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-3328945185954923576Thu, 25 Oct 2018 09:39:00 +00002018-10-25T02:39:24.934-07:00Keynote at UN on blockchains - transcript<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Blockchain Technology and Transformation in the Face of a Climate Emergency </span></b><br /> <br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Professor Jem Bendell</span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The text of the opening Keynote Speech at the UN Blockchains for Sustainable Development <a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" target="_blank">Session</a> at the World Investment Forum 2018, UNCTAD, Geneva, October 24th 2018. Delivered in the Human Rights room to 700 attendees, in the European UN HQ.&nbsp;</span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">What a difference a few years makes. In 2012 I was in Davos, for the World Economic Forum. In the conference corridors, wide eyed and talking excitedly about the need for us to create new digital currencies and use blockchains. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I remember being looked at like a lunatic. Even by the tech entrepreneurs! And here we are, 6 years later at the United Nations. I might still seem a bit of a lunatic but at least I’ve got a bigger crowd. And a smarter one at that. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">In those intervening years, billions in investment has been secured, indicating the potential some see in blockchains and distributed ledgers. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7y-jgKzp9Ck/W9GNgyqJV6I/AAAAAAAABd4/ZBoaHYj8bxQlCvAS4tYD1fOzVKISQDuYwCLcBGAs/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="750" height="237" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7y-jgKzp9Ck/W9GNgyqJV6I/AAAAAAAABd4/ZBoaHYj8bxQlCvAS4tYD1fOzVKISQDuYwCLcBGAs/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mainstream media has also got in the on the act. One week they tell us blockchain will save the world. And the next that it will destroy the world. Never, in the history of humanity have people got so animated about something as exciting as a type of database.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">OK, so blockchains are a bit more than a type of database. But I emphasise the simplicity of the technology here because I believe it’s not actually the technology that will deliver net positive outcomes for humanity.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">It never is. That’s why this session is useful. So we can discuss intentions and contexts. It is why I’m pleased my University is involved in co-organising the session, and grateful to the Blockchain Charity Foundation for supporting our work and being here today. It is impressive that UNCTAD have taken the initiative to provide member states and others the opportunity to learn more about the pros and cons of new technologies.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So let me first cover some basics so that we are all on the same page. A blockchain is a record of data that is comprised of blocks which are added over time from a distributed network of participating computers. It means the data can’t be changed, hacked or lost. Blockchain was invented in 2008 to serve as the transaction ledger of the digital currency called bitcoin. Blockchains support much more than digital currencies now, as they offer immutable records that can be public and enable interoperability. This is interesting many governments that struggle with legacy IT systems that can’t talk to each other. Another function of blockchains that is driving interest is called a smart contract. That is a contract between two parties where a payment can be made automatically when a shipment arrives, or where dividends are paid automatically when profits reach a certain level. The technology moves fast and although we use the term blockchain here today, there are promising post-blockchain systems like holochain, which appear more nimble. But the general promise of all these distributed ledgers is greater data transparency, coordination, and automation. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Today, we will hear a range of examples of how distributed ledgers are being deployed for useful outcomes. One example we will hear of is in Kenya where blockchains are combining with grassroots initiatives to provide some of the poorest in society with new currencies to trade with each other. Another example I like is a cryptocurrency called Stellar that enables payments via chains of credit or, simply, promises, between account holders. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Many useful services have been built on top of these new rails, including non-cash remittances used by microfinance organisations across Africa. As this field is moving so fast, it is great that we will be hearing the latest from our panellists, as well as at the side event by UNRISD this afternoon. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Despite some positive examples, the use of these technologies for everyday applications is still rare. Some say that blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are dangerous to our financial system, our security and the environment. How we can address those concerns is something to discuss. As is the matter of how these technologies could be used to address critical dilemmas facing humanity today.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">When exploring these questions it’s helpful to keep an open mind. With any kind of technological advance, we may look at it with a mix of intrigue, wonder, confusion or concern. <b>But let’s not be naïve optimists or blind sceptics about technology. And let’s not be bystanders. Because technology is neither inherently good or bad for humanity. Instead, it needs responsible management to maximise its intended benefits and minimise its unintended drawbacks</b>. That perspective means we can look at blockchain and crypto currencies and seek to guide their development for positive public outcomes. To do that well will require wider stakeholder participation in shaping the direction and governance of this technology.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VhlpmWj1wRs/W9GNtq7IOzI/AAAAAAAABd8/x5EOcQrDZwwzzHm2ienkmmaTgwj8gy0DwCLcBGAs/s1600/DqRcXPQXgAAbOSD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VhlpmWj1wRs/W9GNtq7IOzI/AAAAAAAABd8/x5EOcQrDZwwzzHm2ienkmmaTgwj8gy0DwCLcBGAs/s320/DqRcXPQXgAAbOSD.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The Sustainable Development Goals offer one framework on public need. And we will hear of a range of efforts on different SDGs from our panellists. But I’d like to invite us to consider something bolder, more urgent. Although climate change is included in the SDGs,<b> the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change invites a reprioritisation. It implies that climate change is now a planetary emergency posing an existential threat to humanity.</b> The artist who made this ceiling said he was inspired by a mirage in the Sahel where trees, donkeys and people all appeared to be melting up into the sky. We could take that a dramatic metaphor, in this human rights room, of the human face of climate change. So as our climate spirals away from one friendly to our civilisation, we need to face up to why we have been so incapable of changing our ways, collectively, at scale. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><b>Despite decades of deliberation and initiative, carbon emissions continue to rise. One reason we have not stopped that is because action has always been an add on, not a starting point for our systems of economic organisation. So although it is typical for conversations like ours today to focus on how to improve the current global system, I want to ask us to consider something far bolder. That is the need to transform our economic system – and fast. </b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So here is the critique – and it’s not a shy one. Currently, stock markets incentivise the maximisation of company growth and profitability. That can encourage firms to manipulate people to consume more, while externalising costs onto society and the environment. But a deeper driver of humanity hitting natural limits is our monetary system, which is based on privately-issued debt. Nearly all electronic deposits are created by banks as interest-bearing loans. For the system to function normally, more of our Earth’s resources must be consumed to generate yields to service those debts. Otherwise, when existing loans are paid off, our money supply would dry up. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This system was OK for a time, and OK in some places. But not now. The climate chaos we face is nature’s answer to our hubris that we could expand forever. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">A systemic redesign of our banking and corporate systems is long overdue. Until now, people in senior roles have preferred less awkward explanations of our problems. But now that complacency has become a grave threat to life on Earth. <b>We now know that many self-reinforcing feedbacks have begun to further warm the planet, threatening to take the future out of our hands. So if we don’t wake up from our delusions of what is pragmatic and appropriate, then shame on us.</b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">What to do now then? It means there must be a gateway question for any new technology: how is it going to help us build resilience and reduce harm? </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><b>When I look at blockchain technologies and crypto currencies, I therefore look at what opportunities there might be to transcend our self-harming monetary and corporate systems. No less a question is sufficient given our planetary emergency. </b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So here are some questions that might arise from that starting point. Could we see forms of company financing through digital token sales which don’t necessitate share-price competition and the perpetual growth of corporations? Could we see forms of money that are tied to natural ecosystem maintenance, or issued fairly to people for work of real value? Could blockchains be designed to be as energy efficient as possible? Could they be designed not to enrich speculators or create new monopolies? Could they be designed to enable upgrades driven by the beneficiaries, rather than commercial interests? Could blockchain projects take an integral approach, where the code itself and the internal governance are aligned with sustainable outcomes? In technical terms, the answer is absolutely yes. But sadly these approaches have been marginalised if they do not promise a quick buck.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I will give you one example. Today, in 200 communities around the world, people are swapping goods and services with their neighbours without using any money, using software from the <a href="http://www.localpay.tech/" target="_blank">Credit Commons Collective</a>. Because of a handful of volunteers, these communities don’t need to pay a company for an app, don’t see adverts, don’t have their data harvested, and they own their installation of the software. These people, around 30,000 of them, are using very basic software because no one is funding its upgrade. Because there’s no profit in it. <b>So if we want transformative change, we will need a shift in ambition from our philanthropists and aid agencies to one of transformation. </b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Currently social impact projects using blockchain may be useful but are often based on sub-optimal technologies. As we face an existential climate crisis, it is simply not good enough to base environmental initiatives on systems with code that is toxic for our climate. That is once again a reminder that we need collective leadership to shape blockchain and crypto currencies for significant and scalable public benefit. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So as we discuss the potential of these technologies, let’s remember that any technology is really our knowledge and system for creating things. That depends as much on our intention as it does on any code or gadget. <b>So as we look at the difficult times ahead, our intention for creating things needs, more often, to arise out of our love for humanity and creation. The technology we seek is not some new distributed database. The technology we seek is love. </b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So, as we hear the contributions in this session, I recommend asking how specific initiatives are empowering people and responding to our planetary emergency. If that is the basis of our conversations here today, then this is a useful gathering indeed. So please don’t hold back. Thankyou.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SMYDhIaaFCw/W9GN_1zmrkI/AAAAAAAABeM/AOmPni-6Sk4yyxEfliukkm1JWhqt0tR_QCLcBGAs/s1600/DqQvKQnWwAMA0ep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SMYDhIaaFCw/W9GN_1zmrkI/AAAAAAAABeM/AOmPni-6Sk4yyxEfliukkm1JWhqt0tR_QCLcBGAs/s320/DqQvKQnWwAMA0ep.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Professor Bendell teaches an intensive residential course on blockchain and society, in London, April 1st to 4th. Explore <a href="https://store.cumbria.ac.uk/product-catalogue/general/short-courses/crypto-blockchain-and-society-exploring-sustainable-exchange" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">More information on Bendell's recommendations for Integral Blockchains is outlined <a href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/04/integral-technology-in-blockchain.html" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">More information on the near term threat of collapse from climate chaos is available <a href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The video will be available via <a href="http://www.b4sd.net/">www.b4sd.net</a></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><br /></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/10/keynote-at-un-on-blockchains-transcript.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-6383572441038973059Tue, 02 Oct 2018 13:24:00 +00002018-10-02T06:24:23.411-07:00Leadership Beyond Denial of Our Climate Tragedy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Transcript of a talk given at the <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poetics-of-leadership-tickets-38950939308#" target="_blank">Poetics of Leadership conference</a>, University of Cumbria, Ambleside Campus, 7<sup>th</sup> September 2018, by Professor Jem Bendell, co-chair of the conference. Based on the <a href="https://www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/poetics-of-leadership-papers/" target="_blank">conference paper</a> “From Denial to Deep Adaptation: Seeking Leadership Amidst Climate Tragedy.”</span></i></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">"The topic that we will explore in this session is in the ether of our conference. Which may reflect how the topic is increasingly in the minds of some people in recent years, particularly in the environmental movement. It doesn’t feel right to me given the serious nature of the topic to just present a summary of my paper. We can’t avoid the emotional impact of this topic. And shouldn’t try to. Although my attempt to develop a “deep adaptation” concept was partly to take some of the sting out of things by inviting reflection within a framework, perhaps a life-raft for despair, I don’t see there is any way to just jump into this as a technical or philosophical discussion.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Because it is such an important topic, connected to the most important questions of existence, and an emotional journey for me, I want to be more precise than I am usually. Therefore, I will abandon a habit of a few years, and actually read my talk. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">What I want to do in this session is to invite you to consider simply: “What If?”&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INyxSo3gJzA/W7Nw94iV5qI/AAAAAAAABc4/xZwJi9OFaAYzwGp96Y8JSIgWmtFIkvk4QCLcBGAs/s1600/poetics%2Bpicture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="992" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INyxSo3gJzA/W7Nw94iV5qI/AAAAAAAABc4/xZwJi9OFaAYzwGp96Y8JSIgWmtFIkvk4QCLcBGAs/s400/poetics%2Bpicture.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div><br /> <br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><b><i>“What if it is too late to avert a catastrophe in our own societies within our lifetimes, due to the impacts of climate change, particularly on agriculture. What might that mean for my life and work?” </i></b></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Only if we consider that it could be too late could we explore implications for life and work - and deepen our dialogue on adaptation. I am no expert in that field. Instead, my role here is to invite more people to engage in that dialogue. Most people don’t engage, as they raise many arguments against the view that we now face a probable or inevitable collapse in our societies within ten years. So, to encourage more of us to move into that “what if” space to consider this and let it generate new insights, I will summarise some of my own story in arriving at this point of view.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">I was an environmentalist since the early nineteen nineties. After University my first job was with the World Wide Fund for Nature – that’s the large WWF charity with the famous Panda logo. I’ve known about climate change for decades. News of extreme weather used to be stories I would share as a call for action. But they started to come so thick and fast, that I began to wonder. Images like the one here have been appearing on our devices with increasing frequency (animated gif of temperature anomalies). I had assumed the authority on climate was the IPCC – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to them, an ice-free Arctic was a possibility by 2100. That sounds far enough away to calm the nerves. But real-time measurements are documenting such rapid loss of ice that some of the world’s top climate scientists are saying it could be ice free in the next few years. So, I couldn’t take for granted the official position of the IPCC anymore. For the first time in 23 years, I decided to look at the science myself. It was the start of a major shift in my worldview, self-image and priorities. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Sea-level rise is a good indicator of what’s happening, as a lot has to happen to change it. In 2001, the IPCC estimated a global sea level rise of 2 millimetres (mm) per year. By 2007, satellite data was revealing a sea level rise of 3.3 mm per year. Yet that year the IPCC offered 1.94mm a year as the lowest mark of its estimate for sea-level rise. Yes, you’re right: that’s lower than what was already happening. It’s as if the river had already flooded your living room but the forecaster on the radio says she is not sure if the river will burst its banks. Analysts have since revealed how the IPCC got it so badly wrong. When scientists could not agree on how much the melting polar ice sheets would be adding to sea-level rise, they left out the data altogether (1). Yeah, that’s so poor, it’s almost funny. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Once I realised that the IPCC couldn’t be taken as climate gospel, I looked more closely at some key issues. The Arctic looms large. It acts as the planet’s refrigerator, by reflecting sunlight back into space and by absorbing energy when the ice melts from solid to liquid. Some of the most eminent polar scientists predict the sea ice will disappear in the next few years. I suppose that is one way of interpreting “by 2100”. Once the Arctic Ice has gone, the additional global warming would amount to as much as half of all warming caused by our pollutants. That blows the global 2 degree target out the window. The implications are immense for our agriculture, water and ecosystems. Even just one warmer summer in the northern hemisphere in 2018 reduced yields of wheat and staples like potatoes by about a quarter in the UK. Unlike other years, the unusual weather was across the northern hemisphere. Globally we only have grain reserves for about 4 months, so a few consecutive summers like 2018 and the predicted return of El Nino droughts in Asia could cause food shortages on a global scale. (2)</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Untethered from the IPCC, I discovered worse. I learned about the increasing concentrations of methane gas in our atmosphere, released from the melting permafrost. Methane is 80 times more powerful at trapping the sun’s energy than carbon dioxide. The huge amounts of methane stored in the relatively shallow waters off Siberia are now at risk of release as the water warms. Any release would mean a jump of global temperatures not seen since the Permian mass extinction 250 million years ago, which wiped out 95 percent of life on Earth. I think you know what that means. Even for Elon Musk. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Is it happening? Worried, I looked at the latest methane readings from satellite and land measurements. Mid-altitude measurements showed methane levels increasing about 1.8 percent over the previous year, with surface measurements about half of that. Both figures were consistent with a non-linear increase - potentially exponential. The difference between concentrations at ground level and mid altitudes is consistent with this added methane coming from our oceans, which could be from methane hydrates. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Then I discovered that scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science were reporting data on actual sea levels that was consistent with sea-rise being non-linear. That is a proxy for non-linear changes in our climate. It means that escalating feedback loops are now warming the planet further. It was harrowing research, and I summarise it in the <a href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html" target="_blank">Occasional Paper that we issued in July</a>. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">As I considered whether to issue that paper immediately, rather than look for a new journal and wait a year for publication, I saw all the bad news on my screens. It was 30 degrees Celsius inside the Arctic circle during July 2018, which is 10 degrees warmer than it should be. The dark future was flooding in on the present. I couldn’t delay being more public about this situation and beginning to change my priorities. </span></div><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">I have worked in a profession where people said it’s not helpful to worry people. But without much evidence for that claim. I have worked in a profession that celebrated all the good things being done, such as reduction of carbon footprints and the development of renewable energies. All that is good and should be continue. But these steps forward are like walking up a landslide. They won’t change the temperature increases that are locked-in and the damage that will be caused. I had to conclude we face the kind of disruptive climate change that will trigger social collapse. By that I mean an uneven ending of normal modes of sustenance, security, pleasure, identity, meaning, and hope. It is not clear when such a collapse will occur. Yet all of us want to know “how long we’ve got.” So, on the basis of the impact on agriculture, I am guessing (yes, only guessing) that within 10 years a social collapse, in some form, will have occurred nearly everywhere on the planet.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">As a profession and way of life, academia invites us to believe we must be experts in order to engage in dialogue. We want to be understood and accepted as experts. I realise this is restricting us from exploring what is happening in the world around us. I am not claiming to be an expert in climate science, or in the implications for agriculture, or on the way collapse might occur. I am not claiming to be an expert on how we respond to this realisation personally, professionally or politically. Part of my reason for publishing the result of my study and the call for “deep adaptation” may have been a need to grieve in public. Or perhaps it was to push myself away from more years of denial. I don’t know, as this is a new situation for me to be in. It seems to be new to others too, and that is why I have started blogging on my unvarnished and non-researched reflections on my journey after accepting imminent collapse.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Some of you will, quite rightly, be questioning the credibility of what I have just said. You may want to corroborate with other info. I recommend you do. For that, I recommend the <u><span style="color: #000120;"><a href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html" target="_blank">full Deep Adaptation paper</a></span></u> and then look into the sources I cite. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Some people who I have discussed this topic with did not try and double check but appeared to diminish the impact of the message on themselves. I have written about some of the ways such denial works, and how it may be institutionalised in the sustainability sector, in my paper for this conference. In a more accessible format, I have listed <a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/barriers-to-dialogue-on-deep-adaptation/" target="_blank">12 typical patterns of denial</a> on my blog at jembendell.com </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">That happens because we think, consciously or not, that we can’t bear it. Our protection instincts kick in to stop us from crying or losing our way. But many of us are probably feeling a bit anxious about the situation I have described. So, before I say anymore, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that anxiety. If you feel like it, I’d like to invite you to notice where it sits in your body, take a deep breath, and let it out, knowing that we are not in danger ourselves right now. I wonder whether we could find a way to welcome that anxiety for how it can invite us to change our beliefs and behaviours. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Some of us will want to grieve. I did. And I still do. Grief about this situation and what is coming will now be a companion to the rest of my life. But grief isn’t a feeling that exists alone. We grieve because we love life, including our own, those of others and the whole of life itself. Love is the basis of our grief. In recognising that basis for our grief, we can move beyond despair or numbness. We can start again, to explore what we might be and do now. Only after acceptance can new forms of meaning, new forms of hope, new kinds of vision be allowed to emerge. For most people that process of moving into and through despair towards a renewed basis for being and acting is not a quick one. And certainly not immediate. But we have just a few minutes more together in this session. So, I invite you to open the door. To begin to reflect on “what if?” </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Some of you will have been through this process for some time, maybe even years. If you have, then I ask you to refrain from aspiring to have lots of answers. We may want to have a plan and reassure ourselves and others. But we can’t really prefabricate for collapse. I will therefore ask you now to turn to one person only and share with each other what you FEEL in response to this question. Just stick with feelings to start with. Let’s do this not as conversation but hearing our neighbour speak without interruption. I know this is a big ask but I’m going to ring a bell after one minute and ask you to then switch speaker. The person with the longest hair in your pair can start. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“What if it is too late to avert a catastrophe in our own societies within our lifetimes, due to the impacts of climate change, particularly on agriculture?” How would you FEEL? </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Now switch. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Thankyou. Now check in with yourself. Aside from what you shared and heard, what else do you feel?</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Thankyou. Now, please turn to another person, and share what you THINK in response to the same question, with an additional part: “What if it is too late to avert a catastrophe in our own societies within our lifetimes, due to the impacts of climate change, particularly on agriculture? What might that mean for my life and work?” </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Now switch. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Thankyou. To conclude, please formulate a key question you now have that you want to answer because of this talk. If you want to, take a moment to write it down. I’ll give you a minute. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">In my paper I provide more background on what has led me to this situation where I’m inviting conversations like the ones you have just had. I don’t have many answers, as this is new territory for me, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, even before considering the implications for strategies and policies. Instead, I invite you to keep having these conversations, and see what emerges. I realise this is quite tough for many of us and it has been for me. On my website I discuss <a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/after-acceptance-some-responses-to-anticipating-collapse/" target="_blank">the range of responses</a> I have experienced or witnessed, as well as information on <a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/emotional-support-in-face-of-climate-tragedy/" target="_blank">emotional support</a> on this topic.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Thankyou for your attention and taking the time for reflection.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">References</span></b></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The paper draws on the studies analysed in the conference paper, available <a href="https://www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/poetics-of-leadership-papers/" target="_blank">here</a>. Other references include:</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">1) https://www.sciencealert.com/international-climate-change-reports-tend-toward-caution-and-are-dangerously-misleading-says-new-report</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">2)<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/03/falling-yields-of-key-uk-crops-could-raise-food-prices-and-leave-farmers-struggling</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>In the News</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Professor Bendell's work on Deep Adaptation has received mainstream media coverage in <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/theres-worse-climate-news-than-the-mendocino-complex-fire.html" target="_blank">New York Magazine</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-26/new-climate-debate-how-to-adapt-to-the-end-of-the-world" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>Next talks on Deep Adaptation by Prof Jem Bendell</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">30th October 2018, Kendal, Cumbria. Natural England. 12pm midday, Natural England offices. Private event. <br />17th December <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2018</span>, Carlisle, Cumbria. COWC and IFLAS. 7pm at Gateway Building, Fusehill Street. Public event, info <a href="https://www.cowc.co.uk/news-and-upcoming/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />19th December <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2018</span>, Bristol, Avon. Labour Party and Momentum. 7pm. Public event, info <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/if-its-too-late-what-now-with-jem-bendell-tickets-50783651268?aff=efbeventtix" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><b>Connect</b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">If you could work professionally on this topic then consider the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12091253" target="_blank">Deep Adaptation LinkedIn Group</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"><br /></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span><span style="font-family: calibri;"></span></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/10/leadership-beyond-denial-of-our-climate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-731462731305239420Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:19:00 +00002018-08-28T03:19:00.164-07:00Monetary Innovation and Complementary Currencies Researcher Symposium<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5eff61d3-7fff-0a82-851e-2e8075a2bc32" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.08px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j2z6gOX0Tbg/W4UhV0aQT2I/AAAAAAAABbg/2TdorNWsmrs2a9MUbwhR3UX71SaUYDHCgCLcBGAs/s1600/unrisd_logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j2z6gOX0Tbg/W4UhV0aQT2I/AAAAAAAABbg/2TdorNWsmrs2a9MUbwhR3UX71SaUYDHCgCLcBGAs/s1600/unrisd_logo.gif" /></a>IFLAS is co-hosting its second Researcher Symposium on&nbsp;Monetary Innovation and Complementary Currencies, at the United Nations on <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thursday 25.10.2018. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We welcome post-doctoral, doctoral, and masters researchers who work on the topic of monetary innovation, monetary decentralization, in a digital currency or physical currency format, using a blockchain or cryptographically-secured currency or not, with a focus on the broader implications of these innovations for a sustainable society, whether from a legal, sociological, developmental, political, anthropological, management or economics perspective. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Time: 10h00 - 13h00 (10:00 am to 01:00 pm). </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Venue: Room S4, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Co-host:</span><a href="http://www.unrisd.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UNRISD</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="https://ramics.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RAMICS</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="http://www.iflas.info/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IFLAS</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B4SD.net</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://www.swisscurrencyconfederation.ch/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCC</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Background: Blockchains for Sustainable Development is an event that will be held at the UN World Investment Forum at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on October 24th. This forum will be exploring the practical and regulatory implications of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. As the co-organizers of this session, Prof. Dr. Jem Bendell and Stephen DeMeulenaere have been active for many years on the subject of complementary currencies and the design of money for cooperation and sustainability, they have initiated this Researcher Symposium to encourage further research in this field. This Researcher Symposium, organised and facilitated by doctoral fellow Mag. Christophe Place, hopes to gather the contributions of as many postgraduate level students as possible. </span>Every participant will present their research. The format will be<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 5 minutes presentation (researcher profile, research question, methodology, findings, contribution), 5 minutes questions and answers. UNRISD researchers will attend and provide feedback on the presentations. </span>To request participation as a presenter, f<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">ill-in the form on</span><a href="https://goo.gl/forms/GxMVbVo8OhxaWwiv1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://goo.gl/forms/GxMVbVo8OhxaWwiv1</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;"> by Tuesday 25.09.2018 with the following information: Forename, SURNAME, Institutional Affiliation, Research Title, Research Abstract (max. 200 words), Email, Phone (facultative). By confirming your participation, you agree on sharing this information and your presentation with all participants if selected as a suitable candidate to present. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Register for the World Investment Forum via</span><a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.b4sd.net/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/08/monetary-innovation-and-complementary.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-2308576541746087094Tue, 21 Aug 2018 12:22:00 +00002018-08-21T05:22:20.441-07:00University of Cumbria - Major Incident 2018 nominated for National award for the experience it gives students studying paramedic, nursing, forensic science, policing degrees. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q7DqWTxg7Cw" width="480"></iframe>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/08/university-of-cumbria-major-incident.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (University of Cumbria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-4066561922333882233Thu, 26 Jul 2018 04:03:00 +00002018-08-06T01:59:08.963-07:00New Paper on Deep Adaptation to Climate Chaos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Today IFLAS releases its 2<sup>nd</sup> Occasional Paper on themes of leadership and sustainability. <b>“Deep Adaptation: A map for navigating the climate tragedy”</b> addresses in depth some implications of the most recent climate measurements and science. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VXcKcI-3pBk/W1k9Z6z8UnI/AAAAAAAABZk/KxvWSdvAlB0tyAF-OBBLov9oW_AfU8zDwCLcBGAs/s1600/scandinavia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="711" height="247" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VXcKcI-3pBk/W1k9Z6z8UnI/AAAAAAAABZk/KxvWSdvAlB0tyAF-OBBLov9oW_AfU8zDwCLcBGAs/s320/scandinavia.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Sadly, the analysis leads the author to conclude that climate-induced collapse is now inevitable. Professor Bendell studied climate science as part of his degree at the University of Cambridge in the 1990s, and only returned to the primary studies this year after seeing the increasingly worrying news about current changes to our atmosphere and its impacts on our ecosystems at sea and on land. “For the past decades I had relied on the assessments and guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – which was worrying enough” said Bendell, a full Professor of Sustainability Leadership. “But the measured changes in our current environment have outpaced even the worst predictions of the IPCC over the past decades. The leading climate scientists are reporting a much worse situation than the IPCC.” The paper looks at peer reviewed journals and supplements that with the latest data direct from research institutes on climate. “The whole field of sustainable development research, policy and education, and sustainable business in particular, is based on the view that we can halt climate change and avert catastrophe” explains Bendell. “By returning to the science, I discovered that view is no longer tenable. I then explored why people who work in this field, whether as researcher, activists or policy makers, may have been ignoring this difficult truth. It is understandable – none of us want to suffer, none of us want to think years of work has been futile, and none of us want to be admonished by colleagues or ridiculed online.”</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The paper was recently rejected by anonymous reviewers of an academic journal which Bendell has published in before. He also guest edited an issue of the journal last year. “The reviewers wanted the paper to build on existing scholarship in the field, whereas, unsurprisingly, my literature found no prior publications premised on a social collapse due to a global environmental catastrophe” said Bendell. In saying the paper was not suitable for publication, one of the comments from the reviewers questioned the emotional impact that the paper might have on readers. “I was left wondering about the social implications of presenting a scenario for the future as inevitable reality, and about the responsibility of research in communicating climate change scenarios and strategies for adaptation.” wrote one of the reviewers. “As the authors pointed out, denial is a common emotional response to situations that are perceived as threatening and inescapable, leading to a sense of helplessness, inadequacy, and hopelessness and ultimately disengagement from the issue…” </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">That perspective is discussed in the paper as one that enables denial. Professor Bendell explains in his response to the Editor, that the response may reflect “the self-defeating hierarchical attitude towards society that many of us have in both academia and sustainability, where we censure our own exploration of a topic due to what we consider should or should not be communicated. There is both scholarship and experience on the impact of communicating about disaster, and I discuss that in the paper.” Moreover, Bendell consulted with practicing psychotherapists on both the motivational and mental health implications of this analysis and was reassured that perceptions of a collective tragic future should not in itself be a cause for depression. Instead, it could trigger transformative reflection which could be supported - and would be inevitable one day, given the inevitability of mortality for all human life. Bendell has blogged on his <a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/the-study-on-collapse-they-thought-you-should-not-read-yet/" target="_blank">letter to the editor here</a>. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">"I am releasing this paper immediately, directly, because I can’t wait any longer in exploring how to learn the implications of the social collapse we now face," Bendell explains. The paper offers a new framing for beginning to make sense of the disaster we face, called “deep adaptation.” It is one that Professor Bendell proposed in a keynote lecture two years ago and has influenced community dialogue on climate change in Britain in the past two years, including in Peterborough and Newcastle as well as being used by the Dark Mountain network.<span style="margin: 0px;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="margin: 0px;">"Perhaps the paper will appear in a journal one day," says Bendell. "I still believe in the role that we in academia can play at this difficult time, but I can't wait around given the urgency of the situation."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The paper “Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy” is downloadable as a <a href="http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a> from here. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">A LinkedIn group on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12091253" target="_blank">Deep Adaptation</a> exists to support professional discussion of the topic. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Professor Bendell will be presenting the paper at the Poetics of Leadership <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poetics-of-leadership-tickets-38950939308" target="_blank">Conference</a> in September at the University of Cumbria and exploring implications during the <a href="https://store.cumbria.ac.uk/product-catalogue/general/short-courses/foundations-of-sustainable-leadership" target="_blank">Foundations of Sustainable Leadership</a> short course immediately after the conference in Ambleside, UK.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Bendell provides <a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2018/07/26/emotional-support-in-face-of-climate-tragedy/" target="_blank">links here</a> to articles, podcasts, and videos to help people manage emotionally with this information.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Data Update August 5th 2018:</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">After reading a version of the paper Professor Wadhams corrected a mistake in citing his conclusions on the reduction of the Arctic albedo effect. His finding of a 50% increase in warming from an ice free Arctic was misquoted as doubling the effect of&nbsp;<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">warming from anthropogenic emissions</span>. It has been corrected to say a 50% increase. The author is pleased with the reduction in the predicted heat exacerbating feedback, though concludes it makes no difference to the argument that IPCC predictions have been too cautious and that current measurements provide evidence of runaway climate change (which the author concludes will lead to social collapse, which therefore requires a shift in attention to "deep adaptation").&nbsp;</span></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5052548004780242990Thu, 12 Jul 2018 11:09:00 +00002018-07-12T04:09:51.336-07:00Rural Innovation Ecosystems and Leading Wellbeing <br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is much talk in government and academic circles of ‘innovation ecosystems’, in which focused government interventions create an environment (or ecology) in which companies can be nurtured, grown and developed. Similar to ecology where organisms interact with one another and with their physical environment, the expectation is that with the appropriate start in life, the innovation ecosystem will blossom, put down roots and eventually become sustainable. There are several well-known examples where this has happened around the world, mostly where there is a cluster of high technology companies located near a world-leading university. Within the UK, the example most frequently cited is Cambridge, where over many decades strategic corporate partnerships and spin off companies have worked with the University, leading to a plethora of science parks, supplier relationships and new collaboration opportunities. In the USA, there are several examples, notably Silicon Valley, California and Boston, Massachusetts. And there are other examples in Europe, Asia and even a fledgling ICT Village in Madagascar, facilitated by the United Nations. In an innovation ecosystem, there may be an ‘anchor institution’ (usually a university), that provides an environment for knowledge exchange, skills development, and networking. There will be many innovative small companies, which could be spin offs, subsidiaries of large companies or independent. There are opportunities to find out about new technologies and ways of working, leading to collaboration and the development of new products and services. Business angels and venture capitalists will be drawn to the area to invest, large companies will seek to develop their supply chain there, and all this should lead to new jobs and wealth creation.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Apart from a few cases, most of the successful innovation ecosystems are in urban areas. Clearly, networking and collaboration are enabled by closer physical proximity, but there is no doubt that such activities would be of great benefit in rural areas, which are characterised by lower levels of productivity and economic performance. In </span><a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/glbj/jcc/2017/00002017/00000068/art00003"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">a recent article in the Journal of Corporate Citizenship</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> (Marshall and Murphy, 2017), we have explored some of the issues facing rural innovation ecosystems. Rural settlements are defined in terms of population density. The dispersed populations obviously mean that businesses and communities are more isolated, so that travel times to access customers or collaborators, or to undertake normal business activities are longer. There are other issues too. Opportunities for young people, particularly those with higher level skills, tend to be fewer; typically they leave and move to urban areas. This makes the population demographics relatively older. This effect is further enhanced as rural areas attract people in later life, as retirees, commuters to urban areas, or home-based workers – all seeking a better lifestyle, or enhanced ‘wellbeing’. Larger employers, in the public, voluntary and private sectors, are more likely to be smaller subsidiaries. There do not tend to be specialist medical centres, or leading research hubs located rurally. There is a vicious circle around attracting, retaining and developing skilled professionals into the area, as it is hard to provide a package that supports their career development.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, rural areas do attract a particular type of mid-career, skilled professional. They may have held senior roles in larger urban organisations and may have good networks in their own field. They are often attracted to relocate to a rural area, perhaps to accompany a spouse taking up one of the few senior professional roles, or possibly more proactively because they seek a better work-life balance, a desire for a rural lifestyle and wellbeing. Many become self-employed and many are highly innovative. There is evidence that rural economies are sustained by more varied types of businesses, including new business models, social enterprises and clustering of micro-businesses. Unlike what seems to be the conventional image held by policy-makers, these business owners may not be desirous of growth, but to prefer lower risk choices. They may also be older and they may be more likely to be female. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Social enterprise models in which there is a major volunteer element (such as Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN)) are prevalent. There may be links to cultural industries, particularly associated with the landscape and heritage of the area. The reasons for these differences are, of course, related to the population sparsity, the difficulties in accessing resources, people and skills. However, there is emerging evidence that there are also differences in aspirations, lifestyle choices and preferences. Rural areas are populated by individuals, many of whom work in more than one part-time role. Their lives can be a complex mix of paid and unpaid work, self-employment, educational and caring activities. Of course, this is not only a rural phenomenon, but there are certainly fewer opportunities for more conventional roles, meaning that this pattern is prevalent. This means that a rural innovation ecosystem could be something very different from a conventional urban one. It may be less about supporting high technology businesses to grow fast and more about developing individuals to sustain a balanced rural economy. It may require different types of structure, leadership and ‘anchoring’.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a starting point, we need to understand more about the kinds of businesses in our rural economy, how they use new knowledge to innovate, how they network and collaborate, and what kind of external business support is useful to them. At the University of Cumbria, we are starting to explore this in a small pilot study on the </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-chance-shape-government-support-smes-micro-david-f-murphy/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri;">Innovation Capabilities of SMEs</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Innovate UK, in collaboration with the Universities of Exeter, Edinburgh, Essex. For further information: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alison Marshall, David F Murphy and Katie Carr</span></i></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Institute for Leadership and Sustainability</span></i></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">12 July 2018</span></i></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/rural-innovation-ecosystems-and-leading.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-8129115887656000440Thu, 12 Jul 2018 10:28:00 +00002018-07-12T03:28:30.084-07:00IFLAS Open Lectures for Autumn 2018 - we're three quarters of the way there!Three out of four Open Lectures for the coming season have now been finalised, with just one more to be set in stone. So, we have...<br /><br /><br />Tuesday September 11th, James Rebanks - <strong>How to be a sustainable farmer.</strong><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the last five years, James Rebanks went from unknown rural shepherd to international phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Initially with his popular Twitter account - @herdyshepherd1 - and then with his critically acclaimed, and bestselling, memoir <em>The Shepherd’s Life</em>, he documented</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">the&nbsp;unique pastoral farming system of the Lake District that has now contributed to the Lake District 2017&nbsp;World Heritage Site status. &nbsp;</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">James lives and works around Penrith in the Lake District, in the valleys and fells his family has farmed for more than 600 years.</span><span style="background: white;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> He was one of just thirty people nominated in The Sunday Times 2018 Alternative Rich List</span><span style="background: white;">: “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the frantic modern world, he is not only doing a deeply satisfying and meaningful job, which has been needed for generations, he is also campaigning to protect the land he loves and works on</span></i><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.”<span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kdyAGFRmxFE/W0cn3WrTgyI/AAAAAAAAAFk/LNDAX5ioyt0AqQz1K4YDK1y8HjrEfxBBwCLcBGAs/s1600/James%2BRebanks%2B-%2Blarge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kdyAGFRmxFE/W0cn3WrTgyI/AAAAAAAAAFk/LNDAX5ioyt0AqQz1K4YDK1y8HjrEfxBBwCLcBGAs/s320/James%2BRebanks%2B-%2Blarge.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">James will be talking from a farmer's perspective on the ethics, responsibility and sustainability challenges&nbsp;that we all now face.</span> </span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">T<span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">hen in early October, we are delighted to welcome back (to IFLAS <em>and</em> to the UK!) Kate Rawles, fresh from a tip to top&nbsp;cycle ride&nbsp;in South America for&nbsp;a recollection of that epic journey - <strong>'The Life Cycle - a biodiversity bike ride'</strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2017/18 Kate Rawles aka @CarbonCycleKate rode the length of South America on ‘Woody’ a bicycle made of bamboo that she built herself at the London-based </span></span><a href="https://www.bamboobicycleclub.org/"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: inherit;">Bamboo Bicycle Club</span></span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from bamboo grown at Cornwall’s </span></span><a href="http://www.edenproject.com/"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: inherit;">Eden Project</span></span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. From Colombia to Cape Horn, (or as close as you can get to it on a bike), Kate and Woody – the UK’s first ‘home-grown bicycle’ - travelled for 8288 miles following the spine of the Andes through an astonishing variety of landscapes and ecosystems, from Pacific ocean to high Andes paramo; from cloud and rainforests to Bolivian salt flats and the Atacama desert. The aim was to explore biodiversity: what it is, what’s happening to it, why that matters and, above all, what can and is being done to protect it – and then to use the adventure story to help raise awareness and inspire action on this hugely important but relatively neglected environmental challenge.</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O_oK1AzKoH8/W0cp7waOtZI/AAAAAAAAAFw/7JgxwTpwc1kb-catQmMTDM0UBs4EaT2eQCEwYBhgL/s1600/earlydaysleavingRodaderoColombia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O_oK1AzKoH8/W0cp7waOtZI/AAAAAAAAAFw/7JgxwTpwc1kb-catQmMTDM0UBs4EaT2eQCEwYBhgL/s320/earlydaysleavingRodaderoColombia.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">En route, Kate, who rode most of the journey solo, visited a wide range of projects and met some truly inspiring people. From a school whose entire curriculum was based on turtles to a group of young people standing up against one of the largest gold corporations in the world; from a woman who bought millions of acres of Chile to turn then into nature conservation reserves to an organisation protecting endangered monkeys by showing local people how to earn money by turning waste plastic into high fashion handbags rather than by catching monkeys for the illegal (but lucrative) wildlife pet trade. Having arrived back in the UK by cargo ship, Kate will share pictures and stories of her adventure, the highs and lows, the challenges, the ethical dilemmas and sustainability learning, the people and places and of course, the bamboo bike.</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8c1q1XnC06Q/W0cp90QSAHI/AAAAAAAAAF0/XPnreKymVDgcJGp0bDu3IQuX8abcDQRPwCEwYBhgL/s1600/EduardoAlvaroaNationalReserveBolivia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8c1q1XnC06Q/W0cp90QSAHI/AAAAAAAAAF0/XPnreKymVDgcJGp0bDu3IQuX8abcDQRPwCEwYBhgL/s200/EduardoAlvaroaNationalReserveBolivia.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kate’s previous ‘adventure plus’ journey, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Carbon Cycle</i>, a ride from Texas to Alaska exploring climate change, lead to a slide show and a book that was shortlisted for the Banff (Canada) Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Award. Writing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Cycle</i> book is underway!</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zbk3XmNAqUU/W0cqCePyw9I/AAAAAAAAAF8/Bz3nIxX33OMT71G6IvQm0vG_KNokZcsWwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Katesaltflats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zbk3XmNAqUU/W0cqCePyw9I/AAAAAAAAAF8/Bz3nIxX33OMT71G6IvQm0vG_KNokZcsWwCEwYBhgL/s200/Katesaltflats.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> Kate will be here in Ambleside&nbsp;on Tuesday the 2nd October, 17.30 to 19.00</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Our third free Open Lecture, on Tuesday the 16th October,&nbsp;will be a welcome return for regular&nbsp;IFLAS contributor&nbsp;Julie Hutchison. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <span style="color: #9cad0e; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Transforming Not-for-profit Governance: Fresh and more diverse leadership&nbsp;for a digital age</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The composition of boards is increasingly under the spotlight, both in the corporate and also the not-for-profit sector.&nbsp; With word-of-mouth recruitment methods and many roles going unadvertised, questions are being asked about whether not-for-profit boards are representative of the communities they serve.&nbsp; </span></span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-34mzrlHsPFo/W0crdi5URiI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/u4Y1qn65Ljco0_g78toJcALMrkNK1K3iQCLcBGAs/s1600/Julie%2Bphoto%2B2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-34mzrlHsPFo/W0crdi5URiI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/u4Y1qn65Ljco0_g78toJcALMrkNK1K3iQCLcBGAs/s320/Julie%2Bphoto%2B2016.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In an intervention intended to support change, IFLAS alumna Julie Hutchison has set up a consultancy <em>Trusteeship Matters</em>, which uses a range of digital methods to better publicise vacancies, offer education on trusteeship, and support charity trustees by means of an online community of practice called #trusteehour.&nbsp; This Open Lecture looks at fresh leadership for a digital age and how this can help a not-for-profit board evolve to meet emerging challenges."</span></span><br /> <br /><br />Again this talk, along with the others,&nbsp;will be here in Ambleside, 17.30 to 19.00 in the Percival Lecture theatre.<br /><br /><br />To register, please email us at <a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</a> . (The James Rebanks talk is likely to be over-subscribed, and once capacity is reached, those wishing to attend will be added to a waiting list. Transfer from the waiting list to the attendance list may be at very short notice as people drop out).<br /><br /></span><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></span><br /><br />http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/iflas-open-lectures-for-autumn-2018.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-6781365258597333597Sat, 07 Jul 2018 08:53:00 +00002018-07-08T07:30:51.089-07:00Rethinking Leadership in the Lake District<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The poor quality of leadership is a common complaint. Whether politics, business or social change, we often despair at the lack of character, vision, and decisiveness of those “in charge.” As economic, social and environmental problems worsen, some argue this leadership gap threatens our very security and wellbeing. They hope for a future where we would be able trust more of our leaders to do the right thing. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">It is an understandable perspective. Indeed, psychologists studying our views on leadership tell us that wanting to be saved by leaders is a “hardwired” perspective. Once awakened to this tendency, we can think again about how to address the threats to our security and wellbeing. Rather than forever hoping for something different from above, we can begin to create something different from below. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=lake+district&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjN7aXsy4zcAhWQbn0KHbDxB5QQ_AUICigB&amp;biw=1366&amp;bih=651" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.google.com/search?q=lake+district&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjN7aXsy4zcAhWQbn0KHbDxB5QQ_AUICigB&amp;biw=1366&amp;bih=651" border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="1174" height="217" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6-Wy0YmzKrQ/W0B-1ZhT7qI/AAAAAAAABYE/3I5fzDSCo14Lu_2xObeVcpoENmdSuFfNwCLcBGAs/s400/images%2BCapture.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Come see what Google sees</td></tr></tbody></table>That philosophy of "collective leadership" is what is being </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">explored in the Lake District over 7 days this summer. Its implications for how we engage each-other in social and organisational change will be explored, as well as the implications of a troubling global context for our future choices. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The first part of this exploration is a 2-day conference of both academics and leadership coaches. It will explore the role of communication and emotion under the title the “Poetics of Leadership.” In one of the keynote talks, the world-renowned leadership academic and coach Jonathan Gosling will explore his initial ideas on what a coming climate catastrophe may imply for collective leadership. In addition to 40 sessions and paper presentations, the conference will host performance theatre and poetry to stimulate reflection. Vice Chancellor Julie Mennell will open the conference on September 7<sup>th</sup>. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The second part of the exploration is a 4-day course on this new approach to leadership. It is hosted by Professor Jem Bendell, who has advised senior leaders in business, charities and politics. In early 2017 he worked with the leader of the UK opposition party to articulate his approach to collective leadership during the General Election. Jem will be joined by Richard Little, from Impact International, who has advised leadership teams in the worlds largest organisations. Ed Gillespie, of the sustainability communications consultants Futerra, will help us explore the implications of global challenges. Katie Carr will host activities to enable better communication and connection. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The course starts on September 10<sup>th</sup>. Before that, a free Sunday provides conference delegates the opportunity for their own self-organised activities, such as a visit to the Wordsworth Museum, boat rides and fell walking.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">These 7 days in the beautiful Lake District provide a lovely opportunity to begin to resolve that angst we can feel about a leadership gap in addressing today's threats. It may inspire a new way of approaching your work and life in the context of global dilemmas. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">To register for the conference, organised in partnership with the Crossfields Institute, click <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poetics-of-leadership-tickets-38950939308" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">To register for the course, without enrolling as a student or seeking assessment and qualification, click <a href="https://store.cumbria.ac.uk/product-catalogue/general/short-courses/foundations-of-sustainable-leadership" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">To register for the course, as an enrolled student with requirements for assessment and opportunity to obtain a Certificate of Achievement or progress to the full qualification in Sustainable Leadership, click <a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/certificate-in-sustainable-leadership/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">True learning is transformative. “This course changed my life” said one of our past students. It’s why we do it. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/rethinking-leadership-in-lake-district.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-4616688436294655290Tue, 03 Jul 2018 06:39:00 +00002018-07-02T23:44:27.737-07:00Leadership Lessons from the World Cup<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y3Wb9Rf-Lxc/WzsZiPvA4NI/AAAAAAAABX0/aWsiPxN0dEQ0CaKbK-Du4Vh71ha_Wh62wCEwYBhgL/s1600/Wembley_enggermatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y3Wb9Rf-Lxc/WzsZiPvA4NI/AAAAAAAABX0/aWsiPxN0dEQ0CaKbK-Du4Vh71ha_Wh62wCEwYBhgL/s320/Wembley_enggermatch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">A flurry of social media posts described the “curse of world champions” after the reigning football champions Germany went out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the group stage. Since the finals in 2006, every world champion has failed in the group stage at the next World Cup. Italy, Spain and now Germany. As defending champions, France also fell at the first hurdle in 2002. Each nation fielded similar teams to the ones that had won four years before.</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">There may be a reason for this pattern other than a "curse". A reason to be found in our typical reactions to success, whether achieved by an individual, team or company. A reason that explains how leadership lessons can also be taken from the transformation of the England team at this year’s tournament.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">Like politics, a week is a long time in football. So four years between World Cups is like an eternity. Players age, slow down, pick up injuries, and can lose form. And whether they are successful individually depends on whether a tactical system is suited to their strengths. Not only do those strengths change as they age, but those tactical systems should change as the opposition work you out.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">In management studies, we look at why it is typical for successful organizations to fail. If we look at the top of the stock market, almost 100 were not in the <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S%26P_500_companies"><span style="color: #0563c1;">S&amp;P top 500</span></a></span> at the start of the last World Cup. That means about a fifth of the world’s largest companies have fallen out of the top ranking. Success can breed failure when people become fixed into routines while the context changes, due to inevitable changes in technology, markets and regulations. Leadership is often expected to come entirely from the successful professionals who have risen to the top, and whom are allied to the those existing routines. Instead, fast changing contexts call for work cultures that encourage initiative from across the organisation – something now dubbed “<span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/10.1108/SAMPJ-08-2016-0048"><span style="color: #0563c1;">collective leadership</span></a></span>.”&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">As both an Englishman and a Professor of Leadership, I’m appreciating the England team’s approach to collective leadership, which is in sharp contrast to the failures of defending champions. The England team failed to achieve success in major tournaments since 1966. Their last run to the semi-final of the World Cup was 28 years ago. In the 2018 tournament they won their first two games for only third time in their history and did so with a lively pattern of play. For once, it was fun to watch.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">Experts point out that the team does not have better players than in the past. So what is different? Under the manager Gareth Southgate, the narrative about leadership has changed. Which doesn’t just mean the focus on the captain, but the shift to an emphasis on system, team and squad, rather than on the famous players.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">In the past, England always went into tournaments with a drama about the recovery from injury of a ‘top’ player, which then disrupted preparations and meant some players were half fit during a tournament. The role of captain was made so paramount that the manager almost always had to play the established captain, even when they were not suited to a tactical formation, or no longer the best player in their favoured position. England also kept playing its star players well beyond their best years - a parallel to what happened with the exiting world champions.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;">This culture has been encouraged by the sports media, who always single out individuals after a match. It is far easier to tell the public that the key to a performance was whether a star player did something good or not, rather than explain tactics. It is commonplace for journalists to speak about the ‘talisman’ of a team – a phrase that literally implies magical powers of a special individual. It is a problem when football managers begin to believe these stories of magical powers, by openly describing a player as an automatic choice. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">This situation parallels what organisational psychologists have discovered since experiments in the 1980s. They found that whether or not there is any evidence for the view, the majority of people think that any outcome that is below or above average is more a result of the boss than other factors such as market conditions. They <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/10.1108/SAMPJ-08-2016-0048"><span style="color: #0563c1;">concluded</span></a></span>that we have a romantic idea of the importance of a leader, and that this idea restricts our ability to act collectively for our common interest.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">Gareth Southgate broke this thought pattern. Immediately he downplayed the importance of the captaincy and rotated it. "We have this thing about 'an England captain', but really the captain is the person that is captain in the next game, isn't it?” the England manager <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12016/10804313/gareth-southgate-wants-to-create-an-england-leadership-group"><span style="color: #0563c1;">explained</span></a></span>. "Always the danger in any sport with naming a 'captain' is selection. Always there is a danger with form or anything else that it becomes a matter of debate." He said “you need leaders everywhere” and described the importance of a leadership group within the squad.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">How do you achieve that? In the leadership <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/certificate-in-sustainable-leadership/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">courses</span></a></span>I teach, we focus on how to create leaderful groups, where anyone of any rank can step up in a moment to help the group achieve a meaningful objective. It is a philosophy of collective leadership which made me notice the shift in the England set up. Last year the squad were taken to see the Marines and camped out in a forest and undertook activities aimed at team building. "That would never have happened back in the day…” <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/11417770/jermain-defoe-explains-how-gareth-southgate-transformed-england"><span style="color: #0563c1;">said Jermain Defoe</span></a></span>, the striker who played for a few England managers. “We did not have our phones. I did things that I never thought I would do. There were times when I felt a little bit scared doing it, but you have to because your team-mates are pushing you on and it's all about building that trust.”&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">During the World Cup, Southgate has been invited to succumb to the magical idea of the talismanic leaders who will save a team. After the win against Tunisia he was asked to single out players for praise. In reply, he said the result was due to the effort of the whole squad. He often mentions how football is a <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2018/jun/24/england-v-panama-world-cup-2018-live"><span style="color: #0563c1;">squad game</span></a></span> – even widening the idea that it is a team game.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: large;">This approach to collective leadership and dropping the myth of talismanic players has reduced the risk that a loss of form or an injury would disrupt performances. It has avoided systems of play being chosen because of one or two ‘talismen’ who have been mythologised. The new approach has been noticed by some <span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/25/wayne-rooney-harry-kane-england-mr-big-stuff-mentality"><span style="color: #0563c1;">sports journalists</span></a></span> as ditching the era of “Mr Big Stuff”.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ultimately, success in sport, as in business, depends as much on talent, luck and the competition as it does on a philosophy of management or leadership. But the lesson from the failure of past World Champions and the transformation of England this year is that our attitudes to leadership do matter. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Professor Jem Bendell, Founder, IFLAS.&nbsp;</span></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/leadership-lessons-from-world-cup.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-643976092946412236Tue, 22 May 2018 12:04:00 +00002018-05-22T05:04:27.742-07:00Celebrating 10th Anniversary of Cumbria University at Brantwood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This week Richard Little will give his first lecture as a Visiting Professor with the University of Cumbria. He will draw upon the intellectual icons of the Lake District, both famous and semi forgotten, to explore current trends in the world of work (and capitalism). We will be hosted at the famous home of John Ruskin, in Coniston. More info <a href="http://richard-little.eventbrite.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />If you cant make it, then you can hear Prof Little again at our Poetics of Leadership conference in the Lake District, where he will be joined by Prof Jonathan Gosling, Prof Jem Bendell, and many other practitioners and educators of leadership development from around the world. Info <a href="https://www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/the-poetics-of-leadership-conference-eflyer/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cGuHiOLd6EI/WwQGTObQTnI/AAAAAAAABV8/MqN5xqA3mjcaKSI0D9QBnGeqjxG-Z6QdQCLcBGAs/s1600/ruskin.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="799" height="392" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cGuHiOLd6EI/WwQGTObQTnI/AAAAAAAABV8/MqN5xqA3mjcaKSI0D9QBnGeqjxG-Z6QdQCLcBGAs/s640/ruskin.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />Profs Bendell and Little will also be exploring leadership and its development in the face of global dilemmas, in our PGC course, starting with a 4 day residential after the conference. Which involves gazing without shrinking. Info <a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/certificate-in-sustainable-leadership/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />Picture: a permafrost crater in Siberia, caused by methane release.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/05/celebrating-10th-anniversary-of-cumbria.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-3725897427681098063Wed, 25 Apr 2018 07:24:00 +00002018-04-25T00:24:54.251-07:00Multidisciplinary PhD in currency innovation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAeCtUamejc/V6B3x7IAghI/AAAAAAAAAl8/MAQhQJJo5AkEj5-xsGV2WUCEzCro4Y68wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/MOOCadvert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="960" height="158" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAeCtUamejc/V6B3x7IAghI/AAAAAAAAAl8/MAQhQJJo5AkEj5-xsGV2WUCEzCro4Y68wCPcBGAYYCw/s320/MOOCadvert.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>IFLAS has been researching and teaching on local currencies, crypto currencies and blockchain since 2014 when our University became the first public University in the world to accept bitcoin. Since then we have always had PhD students studying this area, taking a multidisciplinary approach, drawing upon social theory to explore the implications for the public of a multicurrency future.<br /><br />We are now seeking new applications for PhD research in this field, to start October 1st 2018. The opportunity is suited to people who work on this topic and could do a PhD part time over 4 or 5 years. They would work alongside a fulltime PhD student who works with the new Lake District Pound, and with Professor Jem Bendell as their supervisor. Most supervision is provided remotely, and so the number of visits to campus during the programme can be negotiated (the July 2019 summer school is obligatory).<br /><br />There is no funding, but the fees for part time students with UK or EU residency are very competitive (under 2000GBP a year).<br /><br />If you already have a Masters degree and are interested, please write one page about your idea for your research and your motivation, and send it before May 10th to Professor Jem Bendell (email jem dot cumbria at cumbria dot ac dot uk). If your idea is relevant, then you will hear within a week of initial contact and be invited to submit a formal application before the end of May to enable an October 1st start.<br /><br />More information on our Institute is available at <a href="http://www.iflas.info/">www.iflas.info</a><br /><br />More information on our views on blockchain and crypto is <a href="http://iflas.blogspot.co.id/2018/04/integral-technology-in-blockchain.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />Our latest peer reviewed paper on the topic, from Prof Bendell, is <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/glbj/jcc/2017/00002017/00000067/art00004" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />Our international engagement on this topic is via Prof Bendell chairing the organising committee of a UN event on blockchain. Information <a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/04/multidisciplinary-phd-in-currency.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5413950386588876590Sat, 07 Apr 2018 16:09:00 +00002018-04-09T20:47:17.111-07:00Integral Technology in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Beyond – a concept note for discussion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><i>by Jem Bendell and Matthew Slater</i></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The billions of dollars of venture capital pouring into blockchain start-ups over the past year reflect how people with a serious financial interest in technology see significant potential in distributed ledger technology (DLT). Yet the actual use of these technologies for everyday applications is still rare. Some say that it is a <a href="https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/" target="_blank">passing fad</a>. Others say that blockchains and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are dangerous to our financial system, our security and the environment. How should we navigate this new sector: as innovators, advisors, regulators, or just as informed citizens? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UJpYKpXysk4/WsjsmxOo3AI/AAAAAAAABSk/yRaugT_3VoYaudDMGAftNAJifj9XygjjwCLcBGAs/s1600/escherdeepmind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="509" height="274" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UJpYKpXysk4/WsjsmxOo3AI/AAAAAAAABSk/yRaugT_3VoYaudDMGAftNAJifj9XygjjwCLcBGAs/s320/escherdeepmind.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deepmind's AI interpretation of Escher's famous hands</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span></span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In this concept note, prepared as background for our article for the World Economic Forum, we explain how approaches to blockchain and cryptocurrency need to be grounded in a clear appreciation of the relationship between technology and society. That clarity is important not just for discussions on blockchains and cryptocurrencies, but for all software technology, as it becomes so powerful in our lives. We will therefore develop a lens, called “integral technology,” to assess the positive and negative aspects of any technology and apply this to recent innovation on the field of distributed ledgers.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">When we hear people comment on blockchain and cryptographic currency being good or bad, we are often hearing different assumptions about the relationship between technology and society. So first, let us review the various ways that people look at that. The <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/technology" target="_blank">Oxford English</a> dictionary defines technology as “The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes..." That is different to how the word is typically used to refer to the “artefacts” - or things - of technology, such as the arrow head, the mobile handset, blockchain, or nuclear missile. By describing both “application” and “practical purposes” the dictionary suggests that technology is best understood as a system of intentions and outcomes. That system involves people, knowledge, contexts and the transformations that are involved in creating those artefacts. These are what we identify as the five aspects of any technological system, which is what we will mean when we refer to a technology in this concept note. The power of this systems perspective on technology is that it invites us to consider further the wider context of politics, financing, iterative redesign processes, the side effects and finally the values that shape technologies. Which is what we will do now. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Is Technology Something to Love or Fear?</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We humans attach a great deal of importance to technology because it seems to be able to meet many of our needs and desires. It brings aspects of our imagination into physical reality in ways that then reshape our lives and what we might imagine next. This utility of technology makes selling it very possible, but also means there is less emphasis given to the costs and consequences of those desires being met in those ways. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Given its centrality in civilisation, a range of perspectives on our relationship to technology have arisen.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Some optimists believe any negative consequences are worth the benefit, and that the march of technology is synonymous with the march of human progress. This view is called “technological optimism”. Others believe that technology takes humans further from their natural state, isolating them from the world, and causing numerous new problems which often require further technological solutions. These “technological pessimists” can point to a range of dangerous situations such as nuclear waste, climate change and antibiotic resistance, to then question the hubris that humanity may have exhibited in thinking our technology meant we can exert influence on nature without an eventual response of equivalent impact on ourselves. The German philosopher <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/heidegge/" target="_blank">Martin Heidegger</a> argued that modern technologies have a quality of seeking to dominate nature rather than work with it, in ways that stem from - and contribute to - the illusion that humans are separate agents acting on nature. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Some of these optimists and pessimists don’t think that we humans have much influence on what is happening. Such “technological determinism” is the view that technology can be understood as having a logic of its own and develops as an unfolding of consciousness in ways that we, our entrepreneurs or our politicians, will not, in principle, control.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> Current debates about the merits or risks of blockchains and cryptocurrencies often echo these perspectives. Some argue it will change, or even save, the world. Others argue that it will collapse the financial basis of our nation states. Still others argue that whatever our view, it IS the future - as if it cannot be stopped. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Counter-posed to these views on technology has been the “technological neutralist” view which suggests that technology is neither inherently good or bad for humanity and therefore needs responsible management to maximise its intended benefits and minimise its unintended drawbacks. That view is the most widespread in the field of</span> <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science,_technology_and_society" target="_blank">Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies</a>. Sociologists have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_construction_of_technology" target="_blank">revealed</a> as pure fiction the apolitical view of technology development as flowing from basic science, to applied science, development, and commercialization.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>Instead, a variety of relevant stakeholder groups compete to influence a new technology and they determine how it becomes stabilised as an element of society. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Therefore, despite the pervasiveness of “great man” stories in our culture, technological innovation is not the result of heroes introducing new ‘technologies’ and release them into ‘society,’ starting a series of (un)expected impacts. Rather, innovation is a complex process of “<a href="http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/bijker2.pdf" target="_blank">co-construction</a>” in which technology and society, to the degree that they could even be conceived separately of one another, negotiate the role of new technological artefacts, alter technology through resistance, and construct social and technological concepts and practices. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We share this perspective on technology. It invites us to see how innovation is a social process that we can choose to engage in to achieve public goals. We are not, however, “technology neutralists”, for a few reasons. First, we do not believe that all technologies have the same level of negative or positive potential prior to their human control. That is because all kinds of different phenomena exist under the one banner “technology”. For instance, while nuclear fission constantly produces poisons which require millennia of custody, smart decision-making algorithms only impact the world insofar as their decisions are acted upon. Second, we do not assume humanity to be the autonomous agent in our relationship with technology. Rather, we are influenced by the technologies that shape the society we are born into. Canadian philosopher of technology, Professor Andrew Feenberg explains this situation as humans and technology existing in an entangled hierarchy. “Neither society nor technology can be understood in isolation from each other because neither has a stable identity or form” <a href="http://www.academia.edu/14907423/Technology_and_Human_Finitude" target="_blank">he explains</a>.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">For us, “technological constructivism” is the perspective that technology and society influence each other in complex ways that cannot be predicted and therefore require constant vigilance by representatives from all stakeholders who are directly and indirectly affected. The implication of this perspective for innovation in blockchain and cryptographic currencies is that the intentions of innovators and financiers are important to know and influence, and that wider stakeholder participation in shaping the direction and governance of the technology is essential. This is the approach that we base our view of developments in software in general and blockchains, in particular. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The Technological State of the World</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Humanity faces many dilemmas today. Some of these are brought about by our technology, some are not, and we may hope many can be solved by a sensible use of technology in future. Climate change is the result of our rapid use of technologies to burn fossil fuels and tear up forests. Malnutrition is the result of a wide array of factors, which are </span></span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">difficult to blame on technology, though its persistence despite the “green revolution” would make technological optimism a questionable position today.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">One field of technology which may be exceptional with regard to regulation and the lack of it is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which describes the ability of computers to perceive their environment and determine an appropriate course of action. Narrow forms of AI are already in use. They often confer a tremendous advantage to those who use it well, and its use by the victorious Trump campaign, and the victorious Leave campaign (of the Brexit referendum) are raising huge questions about the justice of using people's own data to manipulate their voting intention. AI systems tend to be very complicated and sometimes produce unexpected results. But because they save labour, for example by automatically judging loan applications or driving vehicles, there is commercial pressure to simply accept the automated decisions to reduce the costs. As AI is applied to more and more areas of trade, finance, military and critical infrastructure, the risks and ethical questions proliferate. </span></span><br /><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">There are more intense concerns being expressed recently about more general forms of AI that include capabilities for software to be self-authoring. That does not mean consciousness, nor mimicking consciousness, but that overtime <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">the software could develop itself </span>beyond our understanding or control. It c</span></span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">ould 'escape' from a laboratory setting, or within specific applications, and disrupt the world through all our internet-connected systems. Astro-physicist <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540" target="_blank">Stephen Hawking said</a>"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded." Some even fear that, a rogue AI might only be disabled by killing the whole internet. Combined with the resilience of blockchains, which cannot be switched off at any one place, this possibility is a step closer. This potential existential danger invites a new seriousness about software regulation. But our concern in this concept note is more with the way machines in the service of powerful organisations are already shaping certain aspects of our lives with little accountability and that the field of AI is almost completely unregulated.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Introducing the Concept of Integral Technology</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Given these problems, it is self-evident that humanity needs a better approach to technology. How might we frame that approach? Concepts of ethics, responsibility and sustainability have all been widely discussed in relation to technology. Given our systems view of technology, we find <a href="https://www.dailyevolver.com/theory/" target="_blank">Integral Theory</a> to provide a simple prompt for considering its implications for society. It invites us to question internal and external impacts of any system and its embeddedness in wider systems. We are going to propose that humanity needs to develop a more consciously <i>integral</i> approach to the development and implementation of technology. Key to this concept is that technologies need to be more internally and externally coherent. Internal coherence describes how their design does not undermine the intention for their creation. External coherence describes how their design does not undermine the social and political system that they depend upon and which holds technologies and their protagonists to account, as well as the wider environment upon which we all depend. As that social and political system would be undermined by increasing inequality, so the effects of technology on equality are important to its integral character. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">To aid future discussion, here we outline six initial characteristics of such integral technologies.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">1) <b>Meaningful Purpose:</b> The technology system is the result of people seeking to provide solutions to significant human needs and desires, rather than exploit people for personal gain. A positive example is the development of technologies for cataract operations that can be offered affordably for the poor. A negative example is the development of financial algorithms to front run stock market trading. <br />2) <b>Stakeholder Accountability:</b> A diversity of stakeholder opinions are solicited and used during technological development and implementation in an effort to avoid unexpected and negative externalities. A positive example is the cryptocurrency Faircoin for which everything is decided through an assembly; a negative example is bitcoin, in which computer mining stakeholders approve or veto new features based on their interests in maintaining power and profit.&nbsp; <br />3) <b>Intended Safety:</b> A technology does not cause harm when used in the intended ways, and those using it in unintended ways are made aware of known risks. A positive example is the indications and contra-indications on pharmaceutical labels; a negative example is when pesticides are marketed to be used just before the rice or grain harvesting to increase the yield, when that increases likelihood of toxic residues. <br />4) <b>Optimal Availability</b>: As much of the knowledge about the technology as safely possible is kept in the public domain, in order to reduce power differentials and maximise the benefits of the technology when other uses for the technology are found. A positive example is open source software which allows anyone with the right skills to deploy it for any purpose they choose; a negative example is the ingredients of cigarettes which are not published and make it harder for affected parties to build a case against the manufacturers.<br />5) <b>Avoiding Externalities</b>: The way in which the artefacts of the technology affect the world around them are considered at an early stage and actively addressed. A positive example is the design of products to use a circular flow of materials from the Earth and back to the Earth. A negative example is how addiction to computer games may be contributing to obesity in the young while the games companies continue to pursue similar goals. <br />6) <b>Managing Externalities</b>: Subsystems for mitigating known negative externalities are developed at the same time as the technology and launched alongside it. A positive example is the system of regulations that mandate regular physical inspections of aircraft. A negative example is government migrating social service administration to the internet and not ensuring the poorest have the computer access, skills and support they need to use the new system.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Integral Blockchain and Post-Blockchain Technologies</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In the past year Bitcoin has been <a href="http://matslats.net/time-to-bin-bitcoin" target="_blank">criticised</a> for the huge amounts of energy it consumes to secure the blockchain. At the time of writing, <a href="https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption" target="_blank">some compare</a> the consumption to that of Switzerland. Such consumption is not a necessary feature of securing blockchains, but the initial design choice of the inventor, with a system called “proof of work” being used to issue new digital tokens. Other systems like Ethereum also use “proof of work” and are similarly reliant on the computer-mining companies for whether this climate-toxic code is replaced. Sadly the “proof of work” systems of these leading technologies remain. Whereas some proponents of these technologies argue that they are not so environmentally bad, due to servers being located in cold places near renewable energy sources where energy is wasted, these are somewhat defensive post-hoc excuses. Clearly the environmental appropriateness of their code was not one of the design parameters in the minds of the designers.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In the case of Ethereum, the speculation in the price of Ether affects the price of Gas which is used to process transactions. That means that as the price balloons, the system loses its attractiveness for supporting activities that are high volume and low cost. It also transfers funds from the many who would use the system to the few who speculate on digital token value or own the computer-miners.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We contend that systems which are not internally coherent will eventually experience a disintegration of their intended or espoused purpose. In addition, systems which are not externally coherent will eventually experience a disintegration in their public support and their environmental basis. The situation with Bitcoin is probably unsolvable, and its carbon footprint may lead to significant regulator intervention in time. Ethereum has a wider set of aims and so despite the continual delays in moving substantially away from Proof of Work, it may still be able to address the barriers to progress presented by the short-term interests of those controlling the mining computers. However, there is no doubt that this form of governance-by-hash-power is currently an impediment to Ethereum becoming a more integral technology. </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Given these difficulties, we would like to point out some lesser-known projects, which we regard as showing exemplary integral traits.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Providing the same smart contract functionality as Ethereum, the new <a href="http://www.yetta.io/" target="_blank">Yetta</a> blockchain is intended to be sustainable by design, with the low energy requirements of its codebase being moderated further by automated rewards for those nodes using renewable energy. It will also enable automated philanthropy to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Also dissatisfied with how both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus algorithms reward those who already have the most, <a href="https://fair-coin.org/en/faircoin-exchange" target="_blank">Faircoin</a> developed a ‘proof-of-cooperation’ algorithm. More than that, there is an open assembly in which the price of the coin is determined every month. This also is an attempt to stabilise the price of the coin and deter speculators and the erratic price movements which arise from their profiteering. They hold that a medium of exchange is not supposed to be a vent from which value can be extracted from the economy.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">One post-blockchain project, <a href="https://holochain.org/" target="_blank">Holochain</a>, is currently raising capital in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The communications team has made many criticisms of conventional blockchains. For example they have massive data redundancy built in, which causes such a problem for scaling that the original intention of these projects is now being compromised with such innovations as the Lightning networks. Another being that since blockchain tokens are assets without liabilities, they cannot have a stable value and thus constitute a poor medium of exchange. Holo tokens therefore are issued as liabilities, which means they have a purpose and a more stable value as long as the project lives.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: #666666; margin: 0px;">“If someone tells you they’re building a “decentralized” system, and it runs a consensus algorithm configured to give the people with wealth or power more wealth and power, you may as well call bullshit and walk away. That is what nobody seems willing to see about blockchain.”</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"> - </span><a href="https://medium.com/holochain/blockchain-blind-spots-1904d490218d"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1155cc; margin: 0px;">Art Brock</span></span></a><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Another project called <a href="http://www.localpay.tech/" target="_blank">LocalPay</a>, which we both work on, seeks to build a payment system for existing solidarity economy networks. Its protagonists believe that payments infrastructure is too critical and too political to be put only in the hands of monopolists and rent-seekers. Instead, infrastructure which is held in common, equally available to all, is the basis of a fairer society. They too, understand money as credit, with somebody always underwriting its value.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">While none of these technologies is perfect, they are Integral Blockchains and post-Blockchains as they seek to be internally and externally coherent. The internal coherence of a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) means that the code and business model does not undermine the intention for their creation. External coherence of a DLT means that their code and business model does not undermine the social and political system that they depend upon and which holds the technologies and their protagonists to account, as well as the wider environmental system upon which we all depend. As that social and political system is undermined by increasing inequality, so the effect of a DLT on equality is important to its integral character. The four projects we highlighted all seek to integrate these considerations into their codebase and business model, rather than bolt on social or environmental considerations at a later time.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The Need for Technosophy</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Concerns about technology are growing. Warnings over unregulated nanotechnology and artificial intelligence are now widespread. Warnings about the socially and politically damaging effects of social media are growing. </span></span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">There’s a wider problem with how technology is financed and implemented in a free market system that means technology companies’ first duty is to deliver short term profits to shareholders. This means many technologies are developed in a hurry and much software is rushed to market before it is even finished. Many costs and negative impacts are hard to pin directly on the manufacturers, and thus sometimes nobody is accountable. The history of technology is one where resistance to development from society leads to stabilisation around control and access to technology. Recently we have had massive diffusion of new electronics such as the mobile phone and social media, while the systems for affected stakeholders to hold these technological systems to account do not yet exist in the ways they have done in other sectors.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">The law is supposed to provide for unanticipated victims of technology and thus incentivise providers to take precautions. This clearly isn’t working nearly well enough perhaps because of the difficulty and expense of using the law and perhaps because some consequences are very hard to prove to the satisfaction of a jury. You may recall the decades of failing to prosecute tobacco companies because the link between cigarettes and lung cancer could not be proven easily.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"> <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">So if the law were better to favour the victims, then technology companies would do more to research and mitigate the secondary effects.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We will not be surprised if legal action will begin to be taken against platforms like Facebook on behalf of millions of claimants for a range of concerns. That might involve teenagers with clinical depression that has been correlated with social media usage, or relatives of those who then committed suicide. Companies like Facebook may point to their internal systems to address such risks, and whether that is sufficient may be debated in court sometime in the future. Such legal action may bankrupt some firms, or trigger changes. But to achieve a wider shift to more integral technologies there will need to be a shift in philosophy that the law alone will not be able to compel. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">It is time for a new era of wisdom in the way we make and deploy our tools. A move from the knowledge of making things to the wisdom of making things – what we call an era of “technosophy”. In the field of digital technologies, this means the urgent development of new forms of deliberative governance, that uses both soft and hard forms of regulation. The forms that this will take need to be developed, but there are many examples from other sectors, where technical standards are agreed internationally and incorporate into national law. That would need to be done in ways that shape not stifle digital innovation, but also enable stakeholders to alert regulators to risk-laden projects, such as those using AI. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">One idea might be to introduce a requirement that before software technologies can be deployed by large organisations (over 200 employees OR over 50 million USD turnover, with subsidiaries analysed as part of their parent companies), the software needs to be certified by an independent agency as not presenting a risk to the public. Such certifications could be based on new multi-stakeholder standards that would establish management systems for responsible software development. Any change of the software code that would be deployed by a large firm would need to be notified to the certifier of the underlying software before release, with a self-declared risk assessment, based on guidance provided by the standards organisation. Systems would need to be established for determining whether particular software types and uses pose heightened risks and require more oversight. For this approach to work it would have to be worldwide, so as to avoid firms moving to jurisdictions that avoid these regulations. Therefore, there is a rationale for an international treaty on software safety to be negotiated rapidly with significant resources marshalled to help these regulations to be appropriately implemented globally. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In developing this idea, we know that many protagonists in software innovation may be appalled. There is a strong anti-authoritarian mood amongst many computing enthusiasts. But it is time to realise that some technology optimists are becoming the new authoritarians, by enabling the diffusion of technologies that have wide effects on people worldwide without them having any influence on that process other than one role - if they can be a consumer. The challenge today is not whether there should be more regulation of software development and deployment or not, but how this should be done to reduce the risks and promote the widest human benefit. We offer the concept of Integral Technology as one way of helping that debate (and not as a template for regulation).</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Unfortunately, in the hype and the reality around Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) we don’t see many ideas and initiatives thinking beyond the initial value proposition and promised returns to investors. Some technologies like Bitcoin seem to us to have betrayed all the aims of the founder and early adopters, yet claims of internal and external incoherence are met with very questionable objections by their near fanatical adherents.</span> The various projects to promote social or environmental good appear to be marginal to the main thrust of this sector, and many add such concerns on top of existing code and governance structures that are not aligned with the project goals. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">On the other hand, incumbent banks and their regulators have often express dismissive or negative views of DLT technologies which suggest they do not understand the problems with existing bank power and practice, or the potential of DLTs. In some countries outright bans on DLTs or cryptocurrencies are not the result of wide stakeholder consultation on questions such as what and for whom systems of value exchange should be for. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Therefore, we believe a technosophical approach to blockchain and cryptographic currencies is currently absent and needs cultivation. </span>It is why we urgently need more international multi-stakeholder processes to deliberate on standards for the future of software technologies in general. In the field of blockchain, one event that may help is the United Nations’ <a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" target="_blank">half day high level discussions on blockchain</a>, taking place at the World Investment Forum in October. Whether wider political and environmental conditions will give humanity the time and space to come together to develop and implement an appropriate regulatory environment for the future of software is currently unknown, but it is worth attempting.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">--</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We provide a background to blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation in our<a href="http://ho.io/mooc" target="_blank"> free online course</a> on Money and Society.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We also offer a <a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/sustainable-exchange/" target="_blank">Certificate in Sustainable Exchange</a>, which involves a residential course in London (next April). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Our academic research on these topics includes a paper recently published on <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/glbj/jcc/2017/00002017/00000067/art00004" target="_blank">local currencies for promoting SME financing</a>, a paper on <a href="http://www.geo.coop/content/thwarting-uber-future-complementary-currencies" target="_blank">thwarting a monopolisation</a> of the complementary currency field and a paper on our <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/99FCA15CAF8E24F4C1257E7E00501101" target="_blank">theory of money</a>, published by the United Nations.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Professor Bendell is the Chair of the Organising Committee of the <a href="http://www.b4sd.net/" target="_blank">Blockchains for Sustainable Development</a> sessions at the World Investment Forum 2018 at the UN. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We produced this concept note on the IFLAS blog for rapid sharing. To reference this Concept Note:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Bendell, J. and M. Slater (2018) Integral Technology in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Beyond, Institute for Leadership and Sustainability, University of Cumbria. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The image used in this post is a reworking of Escher's drawing that reflects the entanglement of author and authored. The image was reworked by Google AI project Deepmind, in its "dream" state, to produce the image you see. Deepmind is learning to identify the contents of images. This technology will be used to save lives, sell stuff and to kill with impunity. Reworking Escher's hands in a rather bizarre fashion reflects our perspective of "technological constructivism" and our belief that the potential of AI to soon achieve (with human action and inaction) autonomous general super intelligence (amongst other dilemma, particularly climate change) means that we need a "technosophical" approach that more wisely assesses and governs technology systems. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font: 400 16px &quot;times new roman&quot;; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Send comments to drjbendell at gmail </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/04/integral-technology-in-blockchain.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-9217842435747142783Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:02:00 +00002018-02-12T07:02:35.196-08:00The IFLAS Open Lectures - Spring 2018The first two IFLAS Open Lectures have now been finalised, and they will be...<br /><br /><br />On Tuesday 20th March, we welcome Ashley Cooper<br /><br /><br /><h4>Documenting climate change on the front line</h4><br />Ashley Cooper has spent the last 14 years documenting the impacts of climate change and the rise of renewable energy on every continent on the planet, the only living photographer to have done so. This epic journey involved traveling to over 30 countries for a project that was self funded from im-age sales into newspapers and magazines. Along the way Ashley was threatened, intimidated, arrested and nearly fell through a snow bridge over a crevasse on the Greenland ice sheet. Following a successful crowd funding exercise, his award winning book was published, "Images From a Warming Planet”<br />This Open Lecture will focus not only on the worldwide journey documenting the effects of global warming, but also the difficult journey to get the book published.<br /><br /><br />Born in Sheffield and gaining a degree in Geography, Ashley spent time travelling in East Africa which inspired him to fundraise £14,000 for the British Leprosy Relief Association by climbing all the UK and Irish peaks over 3000ft - 313 in total. After a spell fundraising for NSPCC Cumbria, Ashley became a full time photographer in 2010.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkakLhgkDpA/WoGlNJOy_1I/AAAAAAAAAFM/5tRFeCIM49MGKPMYLYnirmzxJ9w5q7WeQCLcBGAs/s1600/Ashley%2BCooper%2Bpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="820" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkakLhgkDpA/WoGlNJOy_1I/AAAAAAAAAFM/5tRFeCIM49MGKPMYLYnirmzxJ9w5q7WeQCLcBGAs/s320/Ashley%2BCooper%2Bpic.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>In 2010 Ashley won the climate change category of the Environmental Photographer of the Year Competition, and for the last 25 years he has been a member of the Langdale/Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, the busiest mountain rescue team in the UK.<br /><br /><br />Ashley will be with us in Ambleside at 5.30pm until around 7pm on Tuesday 20th March.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then, in April, we are delighted to welcome Tim Clarke</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What can we do together to save the world’s forests?</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The international community is fully aware of the numerous threats to our forests. UN targets have been set to halt deforestation, but they are not being met. Targets have also been set for reforestation. But these too are not being met. The presentation will identify some of the issues involved and ways in which institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, are trying to tackle the problem. Tim will briefly present the way WeForest (</span></span><a href="https://www.weforest.org/"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">https://www.weforest.org</span></span></a><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">) is trying to make its own contribution. Tim will conclude that everyone can be part of the solution.</span>&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="DE" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After gaining an MA in Zoology/Ecology Oxford University, Tim worked for the European Commission in successive management positions on Human Rights and EU Election Observation until 2004, when he became an EU Ambassador/Head of Delegation to the African Union, then from 2007 to Tanzania and the East African Community. In 2011 he became Head of Division, Crisis Management and Planning Directorate (CMPD) of the EU’s EEAS. Tim retired from the EU in 2013.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-juqak7JOwVA/WoGlPVnaCzI/AAAAAAAAAFU/h5tgWgQLV9YVIFwJNOZNTZpXLHLX6DvawCEwYBhgL/s1600/Tim%2BClarke%2Bpublicity.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-juqak7JOwVA/WoGlPVnaCzI/AAAAAAAAAFU/h5tgWgQLV9YVIFwJNOZNTZpXLHLX6DvawCEwYBhgL/s1600/Tim%2BClarke%2Bpublicity.png" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="DE" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tim is, in no particualr order: Visiting Fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); Chair of the External Advisory Board of the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (CGE), Lancaster University Environment Centre ; Board member for several NGOs: the Jane Goodall Institute , APOPO Foundation , ECOLISE ,GAIA Education; Co-founder of Pro Intercultura; Senior Adviser of WWF, Search For Common Ground , Practical Action and KMG Ethiopia; Global Eco Villlage Ambassador; Strategic Adviser, WeForest.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="DE" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tim will be joining us on Tuesday 17th April, again 5.30pm to approximately 7pm.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="DE" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All IFLAS&nbsp;Open Lectures will take place in the Percival Lecture theatre on the Ambleside campus. Please register to attend either of these talks at </span><a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk"><span style="font-family: inherit;">iflas</span></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk"><span style="font-family: inherit;">@cumbria.ac.uk</span></a>&nbsp; </a></span></span></div><br />http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-iflas-open-lectures-spring-2018.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5589345908475513107Tue, 24 Oct 2017 11:09:00 +00002017-10-24T04:09:14.616-07:00Poetics of Leadership Conference - Sept 2018 Ambleside Lake District<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">Announcing an international conference in the heart of the Lake District</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><i>7th-9th September 2018, Ambleside Lake District Campus, University of Cumbria, UK.&nbsp;</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Decision-makers need to be bold and agile to help their organisations and communities respond to rapid changes in their environments. Actions based on existing patterns of thought and behaviour will not suffice. What stimulates the necessary creativity to think afresh about contexts and choices? In this two-day event, we will explore methods available for leadership development.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J-4_VcZNhMk/We8fRW9oT0I/AAAAAAAABFk/Pjcjq5kLY1QFdoDuJNV93iUiWhP0fRitACLcBGAs/s1600/poetics.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="707" height="159" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J-4_VcZNhMk/We8fRW9oT0I/AAAAAAAABFk/Pjcjq5kLY1QFdoDuJNV93iUiWhP0fRitACLcBGAs/s320/poetics.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Topics will include (but not be limited to): Creative writing as a method for personal leadership development, poetry as an aid for exploring emotions, the visual and performing arts as a means of enabling new ideas, storytelling as a method for leadership communications, physical play as a means of reducing inhibitions, and outdoor activities as opportunities for deepening insight. We will experience such methods and discuss them in the context of both classical and contemporary theories on the role of creativity and arts in personal and social change. For inspiration we will draw on the creative heritage of the cultural landscape of the English Lake District, now recognised by UNESCO.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">The conference is intended for academics, practitioners, postgraduate students and anyone else interested in the conference theme. The aim is to host contributions that break narrow disciplinary boundaries. Alongside conventional presentation formats, such as keynotes, paper and poster sessions and workshops, there will be contributions that take a more embodied and interactive approach. An optional outdoor activity will also be offered. We anticipate lively debate about the structure and form of academic learning, and the responsibility of higher education to widen horizons rather than narrow them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">The conference takes place in a historic campus in the heart of a National Park and UNESCO world heritage site, nestled in amongst beautiful hills and lakes that have attracted hikers and writers to the Lake District for centuries. On the Saturday, a selection of short activities outside the conference venue will be offered.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">Professor Jonathan Gosling and Professor Richard Little will give keynotes. The conference is co-chaired by Professor Jem Bendell (University of Cumbria),</span><span style="color: #666a73; font-family: Benton Sans, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">&nbsp;Charlotte Van Bulow (Crossfields Institute) and Professor Marcelo da Veiga (Alanus).&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;">The event starts at 4pm on Friday 7th September and runs to 5pm on 8th, with an optional day of self-organised activities on Sunday 9th.&nbsp;</span></div><div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">Call for papers</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Contributions are invited from academics, practitioners and postgraduate students. The organisers would particularly like to encourage contributions that break narrow disciplinary boundaries. Contributions may take one of the following formats:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><i style="padding-top: 0px;">1. Research Presentation</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">This is a standard research presentation of 15 minutes maximum followed by 5 minutes for discussion. Research presentations must be accompanied by full submitted articles (3000 to 8000 words) which will be available on the conference website from before the event. Abstracts will be peer reviewed and some may be asked to submit a poster and pitch instead.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><i style="padding-top: 0px;">2. Poster &amp; Pitch</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">An A0 poster plus a three-minute pitch in a themed room followed by time for the audience to interact with individual presenters. These sessions attract a special interest audience and provide great networking opportunities. Poster &amp; pitch may focus on research or practice exchange.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><i style="padding-top: 0px;">3. Practice Exchange</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">This is a presentation or delivery of a practice in leadership development, broadly defined. Sessions may be either 20 or 40 minutes long.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br style="padding-top: 0px;" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">Submissions</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="padding-top: 0px;">The submission of proposals will be in the form of an abstract of 400 words (max) excluding references. You should include a list of up to five key references to accompany your abstract. You should also indicate which format you are proposing (paper, poster, practice) and include a short personal biography.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="padding-top: 0px;">Please email submissions to Fergus Anderson by January 30th 2018 (fergus@crossfieldsinstitute.com).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="padding-top: 0px;">Successful participants will be notified by March 1st 2018.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="padding-top: 0px;">When developing submissions, participants may find the following article to be useful background reading:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="padding-top: 0px;">Jem Bendell, Neil Sutherland, Richard Little, (2017) "Beyond unsustainable leadership: critical social theory for sustainable leadership", Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Vol. 8 Issue: 4, pp.418-444. From <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/SAMPJ-08-2016-0048" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br style="padding-top: 0px;" /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">Registration</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">There is no participation fee for the conference, but there will be a charge for food and drink. Key is to submit your ideas for session or papers before our January 30th deadline (as above). Advanced priority registration begins on November 1st 2017. General registration begins on March 1st 2018. Both from <a href="http://poeticsofleadership.eventbrite.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">Accommodation</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Accommodation is available from the University at £35 pounds per night (ensuite, not including breakfast) and can be reserved directly via&nbsp;<a href="mailto:kirsty.mills@cumbria.ac.uk" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; color: #007f8c; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">kirsty.mills@cumbria.ac.uk</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700; padding-top: 0px;">The Context for the Conference</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">The Poetics of Leadership conference follows on in a series of Collaborative Research Conferences organised by the partners in previous years. Since 2013, Crossfields Institute have co-organised a series of conferences in collaboration with the Institute for Philosophy and Aesthetics at Alanus University (Bonn, Germany). For each conference, a third partner has also been invited in to co-design, co-organise and co-host the conference. Past conferences were organised with the University of Kent and the University of Gloucestershire. The most recent was on Leadership, Ethics and Working with Unknowing (10th-11th March 2017) with University of the West of England’s Leadership Centre (Bristol Business School). The event was attended by scholars in ethics, organisation studies, leadership education and related fields; practitioners, executives, managers and students from a range of universities and institutions. The conference attracted attention and participation from an international contingent of interested scholars:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/higher-education-research/research-conferences" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; color: #007f8c; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/higher-education-research/research-conferences</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Both Alanus University and Crossfields Institute are interested in re-thinking higher education and exploring ways that academic learning can serve the real cultural and spiritual needs of our time, as well as the purely economic. Part of the aim with these conferences is to make links with institutions, departments and individuals who share this interest. Each conference is focused on a specific theme, but the aim is to invite contributions that break narrow disciplinary boundaries.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">For the current conference, Crossfields Institute and Alanus University have collaborated with The Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at Cumbria University. IFLAS has co-organised research conferences on leadership and wellbeing for the past years with Brathay Trust, including a major international festival in 2015.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.leadingwell.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; color: #007f8c; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">www.leadingwell.org</a>&nbsp;Working with Crossfields and Alanus University for a joint conference in 2018 is a natural combination of expertise and networks.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Conference programme details will be published here in early 2018.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666a73; font-family: &quot;Benton Sans&quot;, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;"><br /></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/10/poetics-of-leadership-conference-sept.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5258027016410395760Wed, 18 Oct 2017 10:24:00 +00002017-10-18T03:24:25.749-07:00Howard Johns - Climate Change: Our biggest challenge is our biggest opportunity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> 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font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Howard Johns </span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Climate Change: Our biggest challenge is our biggest opportunity</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The last in the Autumn season of free IFLAS Open Lectures will be once again held in the Percival Lecture Theatre on the Ambleside campus.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Rydal Road, Ambleside, LA22 9BB</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tuesday 7th November, 5.30pm to 7pm<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We are at a unique inflection point in human history, the reality of&nbsp;climate change has moved beyond debate and is in evidence in our daily lives. For much of society business carries on as usual, but huge&nbsp;changes are underway. Renewable energy is becoming the cheapest form of energy in many parts of the world, and the opportunity is here to create a rapid transition to a low carbon future.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We will look briefly at the&nbsp;reality we are facing in our changing climate, the massive shift underway in the energy and transport sectors and the opportunities for local action to create climate friendly solutions and viable businesses in every community.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Howard Johns works for a community-owned renewable energy revolution. He has founded and led an award winning solar business, a pioneering community-owned energy company and written a guide book to help others to do the same. He has campaigned on energy and climate issues from in treehouses and in parliament – and everywhere in between.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Author of&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://permanentpublications.co.uk/port/energy-revolution-your-guide-to-repowering-the-energy-system-by-howard-johns/" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ff2b06; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Energy Revolution – Your guide to repowering the energy system</span></a></span><em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">,</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;Howard is an energy engineer, entrepreneur, business leader and activist. Following his degree in energy technology and environment, he was a protested against, among other things, the digging of an open cast coal mine, and was evicted from a tree in the process.</span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Moving on from saying no to the problems, Howard set about building solutions, eventually founding a national solar energy company, and a locally owned renewable energy co-operative – the first one in the UK to build a solar energy project with a community share offer. At the same time he chaired the trade body representing the UK solar industry, finding himself campaigning on energy policy again in the process.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btJ9IKElRF8/WecqvllR3NI/AAAAAAAAAE4/7Bkwzcxn4MoyHuU-vEmFd35daRUVQqRxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Howard%2BJohns%2Bphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="321" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btJ9IKElRF8/WecqvllR3NI/AAAAAAAAAE4/7Bkwzcxn4MoyHuU-vEmFd35daRUVQqRxwCLcBGAs/s320/Howard%2BJohns%2Bphoto.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><br /></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Howard is convinced we have all the technology and money we need to implement the right climate and energy solutions. Now it is time for lots of people to get involved in making it happen. He still works with his local community energy company&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ovesco.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ff2b06; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Ovesco</span></a>&nbsp;– to scale this project and increase its impact. He is also managing director of a business that manages hundreds of megawatts of solar power stations around the UK, as well as chairman of the positive climate change charity&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://1010uk.org/" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ff2b06; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">10:10</span></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.howardjohns.net/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">www.howardjohns.net</span></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">@howardjohns</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To register a place at this free Open Lecture, please contact <a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</a> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18.0pt;"><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/10/howard-johns-climate-change-our-biggest.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5355201724540520082Wed, 02 Aug 2017 13:50:00 +00002017-08-02T06:50:36.981-07:00IFLAS open Lectures - Autumn's first two now available for registration.<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></div><br />We are delighted to be able to bring to our Ambleside campus the first two Open Lectures for the Autumn series. <br /><br /><br />Firstly we have Mike Innderdale, Assistant Director for The National Trust (North West) who will be joining us in September. Then in early October we will be welcoming the Executive Director of 'Publish What You Pay', Elisa Peter.<br /><br /><br /><h3><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Mike Innderdale, </strong>Assistant Director (North West) at The <em>National Trust</em>.</span></h3><h4 style="border-image: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">A sort of national property - Rising to the challenge of World Heritage Site status and changing needs of today’s society in the Lake District</span></h4><div class="separator" style="border-image: none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-assets/public/ambleside/images/iflas/Mike-Innerdale-230x307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Open Lecture speaker Mike Innderdale" border="0" height="200" src="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-assets/public/ambleside/images/iflas/Mike-Innerdale-230x307.jpg" style="height: 307px; width: 230px;" width="149" /></a></div><div style="border-image: none;">Tuesday 12th September 2017</div><div style="border-image: none;">Percival Lecture Theatre, Ambleside campus, LA22 9BB</div><br /><br />As one of our most cherished National Parks and a candidate World Heritage Site, how should the Lake District go about rising to the challenges of the ever changing needs of society and expectations of our visitors and communities? The National Trust, along with other partner organisations, recognise change is a good thing and in the Lakes the relationship between man and the land has changed over time, shaping this unique landscape and inspiring some of greatest thinkers. The talk and discussion will explore the challenges we face today from a variety of viewpoints and give a flavour of what some of the solutions might be.<br /><br /><br />Mike has spent the majority of his career working in land management within protected areas across a variety of government, private and third sector organisations. He started with the Forestry Commission working in both the Lake District and the North York Moors, followed by roles at Severn Trent Water in the Peak District and as RSPB’s Regional Reserves Manager for North of England.<br />For the National Trust, Mike began as General Manager for their Peak District estate, responsible for major tracts of moorland and farmland in the Dark Peak and setting up a major new partnership with RSPB to manage one of the National Park’s upland estates. For the last 6 years Mike has been the Trust’s North Region Assistant Director, with overall strategic and operational responsibility for Cumbria and North Lancashire, representing over 25% of the Lake District National Park and a fifth of the Trust’s total landholding.<br /><br /><br /><h3><span style="font-size: large;">Elisa Peter, Executive Director of Publish What You Pay</span></h3><h4><span style="font-size: large;">Adaptive leadership in a time of change - fighting corruption in the oil and mining sector</span></h4><div style="border-image: none;"><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-assets/public/ambleside/images/iflas/EP-photo-230x230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Open Lecture speaker Elisa Peter" border="0" src="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-assets/public/ambleside/images/iflas/EP-photo-230x230.jpg" style="height: 230px; width: 230px;" /></a></div>Tuesday 3rd October 2017<br />Percival Lecture Theatre, Ambleside campus, LA22 9BB<br /><br /><br />Elisa’s talk will look at current efforts led by civil society around the world to bring transparency and accountability in one of the industries most prone to corruption: the oil, gas and mining industry. Fraught with danger, anti-corruption activists put themselves at risk to expose oil and mining barons. They lead the way thanks to their ability to adapt and change under difficult circumstances.<br /><br /><br />Elisa Peter is the Executive Director of Publish What You Pay, an international coalition of 800 member organisation working together to address corruption in the extractive sector. She has 20 years of experience in international campaigning, grassroots movement building and high-level advocacy. She has worked and lived in central and north America, Europe and Russia. Elisa also spent 6 years working for the United Nations as the Head of the UN’s Non-governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) in New York, advocating for and supporting civil society’s meaningful participation in the UN’s decision making processes. Most recently, she advised The Elders, a group of former Heads of State and Nobel Prize winners, on their political strategies related to peace and security, sustainable development, climate change and women’s rights. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School<br /><br /><h4>To register a place on any of the above Open Lectures, contact <a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</a></h4>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/08/iflas-open-lectures-autumns-first-two.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-7889434201233326759Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:10:00 +00002017-04-26T02:10:07.594-07:00Vivienne Westwood to come to IFLAS in Cumbria <br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne Westwood, iconic fashion designer and environmental activist, will come to the Lake District to give a talk and take part in a question and answer session at the University of Cumbria’s Institute of Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) on Tuesday, 20 June 2017. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><br /><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><em><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Exploring and Challenging Ideas on Sustainable Leadership, Climate and Social Change”</span></b></em></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><em><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></b></em></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-birw9ZOiztk/WQBi5E2kSPI/AAAAAAAAAEg/rUVSYpvs4F8Lb0qwNDwp44RhGTvqVOxqwCLcB/s1600/Vivienne%2BWestwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-birw9ZOiztk/WQBi5E2kSPI/AAAAAAAAAEg/rUVSYpvs4F8Lb0qwNDwp44RhGTvqVOxqwCLcB/s1600/Vivienne%2BWestwood.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne Westwood (Image by Jürgen Teller)</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><em><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></b></em><em><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></b></em><br /> <br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“We’re delighted to welcome Vivienne to our Ambleside campus in the heart of the Lake District and offer her an ideal platform to deliver her thoughts and inspirations on subjects close to her heart and ours,” Prof Julie Mennell, Vice Chancellor, University of Cumbria said. “In our 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary year we could not think of a better place than Cumbria and the University of Cumbria for this kind of debate. We’re sure Vivienne will spark a stimulating and exhilarating discussion as she is exactly the kind of thought-provoking guest we love to welcome at our university.”</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne is looking forward to talking about steps she believes everyone can take to help make a difference to one’s own life and the future of locations such as the Lake District.</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“My fashion and my activism support each other; they are driven by the same motor. I want a better world. I say “Buy less, choose well, make it last.” <em><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif;">Quality not Quantity</span></em>. I use my green politics for graphics on clothes and my shows carry my activism themes. I use every opportunity to open my mouth.&nbsp; I try to select, analyse and concentrate the most important information so people can cut through lies and propaganda and see what is real,” the designer said.&nbsp;“People ask, what can I do to help save the environment? In all my time as an activist, I’ve never had a satisfactory answer to give: Inform yourself, talk to your friends, support the NGOs, save a plastic bag; every one of your decisions count. This is the answer, but doesn’t go very far to solving the total problem which is overwhelming. Now we realise the answer: SWITCH to a Green Energy supplier.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“It’s a war for the very existence of the human&nbsp;race. And that of the planet. The most important weapon we have is public&nbsp;opinion: go to art galleries, start to&nbsp;understand the world you live in. You're&nbsp;a freedom fighter as soon as you start doing that.”&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne is a Trustee of human rights organization&nbsp;Liberty&nbsp;and Patron of&nbsp;Reprieve. She has continually campaigned for the release of Leonard Peltier for many years and is also a campaigner for&nbsp;Amnesty International.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><div style="margin-right: -14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">As well as Human rights, Vivienne is passionate about the environment and actively supports the charity,&nbsp;Cool Earth, in their efforts to save the rainforest and stop climate change, as well as supporting the&nbsp;Environmental Justice Foundation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Friends of the Earth- amongst others. Vivienne is also an ambassador for&nbsp;Greenpeace&nbsp;and in 2013 designed their official ‘Save the Arctic’ logo and in 2015 launched a global campaign to stop drilling and industrial fishing in the area.</span></div><div style="margin-right: -14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rTHKxMm4FHQ/WQBi6M9WKMI/AAAAAAAAAEo/MzI1iP_MIuobXZtyBiX7k8JLfR3SV4DEwCEw/s1600/Viv%2BWestwood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rTHKxMm4FHQ/WQBi6M9WKMI/AAAAAAAAAEo/MzI1iP_MIuobXZtyBiX7k8JLfR3SV4DEwCEw/s320/Viv%2BWestwood.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-right: -14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><div style="margin-right: -14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne has worked with the&nbsp;United Nations, Environmental Protection Agency&nbsp;to re-establish the fragmented forests of Europe, and has also joined forces with the&nbsp;International Trade Centre- a joint body of the UN, since 2011 to produce bags through their&nbsp;Ethical Fashion Initiative. The programme currently supports the work of thousands of women from marginalized African communities and empowers informal manufacturers and craftspeople to enter the international value chain - providing an income for some of the poorest people in the world. The collections are created using recycled materials from slums and land fill and the income helps to stop the need to continue deforestation in the area.</span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne inaugurated the 'Climate Revolution' at the 2012 London Paralympics closing ceremony and continues to rally charities, NGO's and individuals to join forces and to take action against disengaged political&nbsp;leaders and big business.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><div style="margin-right: -14.2pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne has also written her ideas in a Manifesto called&nbsp;“Active Resistance to Propaganda”.&nbsp;The AR Manifesto evolved through her fashion shows which she uses as a platform for her cultural and environmental concerns.&nbsp; It is a call to become more cultivated and in doing so gain the strength and wisdom needed to live life well now and to save the planet for the future.&nbsp; Vivienne’s monthly diary and more information on her concerns, passions and campaigns can be found at&nbsp;<a href="http://track.vuelio.uk.com/z.z?l=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jbGltYXRlcmV2b2x1dGlvbi5jby51ay8%3d&amp;r=8852887254&amp;d=3436052&amp;p=1&amp;t=h&amp;h=e132384276b520a2f82431f139b7c766"><span style="color: blue;">www.climaterevolution.co.uk</span></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span> <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vivienne Westwood will appear from 5.30-7pm in the Percival Lecture Theatre, University of Cumbria, Ambleside LA22 9BB</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The event will be open to all with a percentage</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;of tickets reserved for students. Tickets will be free and will be released shortly. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">To register an interest email <a href="mailto:rsvpevents@cumbria.ac.uk"><span style="color: blue;">rsvpevents@cumbria.ac.uk</span></a></span></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/04/vivienne-westwood-to-come-to-iflas-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-3359745867654023019Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:43:00 +00002017-04-07T05:43:20.788-07:00Doctoral studies on sustainable leadership - welcoming Aimée<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B-nkiaDY2w0/WOeGRwfcEpI/AAAAAAAAA8c/auUTFJ5Qqi48-b8LvIH_cjQLPxGMKsBZwCLcB/s1600/aimee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B-nkiaDY2w0/WOeGRwfcEpI/AAAAAAAAA8c/auUTFJ5Qqi48-b8LvIH_cjQLPxGMKsBZwCLcB/s200/aimee.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The doctoral research community on sustainable leadership at the University of Cumbria continues to grow. This month we welcome Aimée Leslie to begin her research on&nbsp;leadership in environmental organisations in the context of increasing concern about progress on conservation.<br /><br />Working with Professor Jem Bendell at the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (<a href="http://www.iflas.info/" target="_blank">IFLAS</a>), with support from Dr Maria Mouratidou of the Business School, Aimée will be looking at how environmental professionals evolve as they learn about the variable impacts of their strategies. <br /><br />Aimée Leslie works as a senior manager at the environmental organisation WWF International and will research with IFLAS part time:<br /><br /><i>"I’m from Costa Rica. Originally I studied and worked in communications and the media industry, but I have always been passionate about conservation, so when the opportunity to change a volunteer role into a full-time job came, I took it and have dedicated to marine species conservation ever since. I’ve worked for different NGOs over the years, but have spent the last 6 years in Switzerland, working for WWF International. Sustainability, more than a concept is a way of life; one where we care as much about others (people, species, and the environment) as ourselves, and where we put common good above our own interest. This is something I truly believe in and hope, that for the benefit of future generations, more of us choose having a more satisfying life by consuming less and giving more."</i><br /><br />Aimee will be joining the internal research symposium on leadership at the University in Carlisle on July 17th and the week-long module on Sustainable Leadership this September in our Lake District Campus in Ambleside. Starting on Sept 12th, that module is open to other professionals in the sustainability field as well as those working on staff development or organisational development and change. Information on that course is <a href="http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/certificate-in-sustainable-leadership/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />To contact Aimee about her research, or Professor Bendell about doctoral studies, email iflas@cumbria.ac.uk<br /><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/04/doctoral-studies-on-sustainable.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-3209727275892845552Mon, 03 Apr 2017 21:28:00 +00002017-04-03T14:28:47.470-07:00Free Place on Professional Fellowship for our MOOC alumni<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div><span style="color: black;"><b>Financial Health Fellowship - looking for the best ideas to tackle financial exclusion and exploitation</b></span><span style="color: black;">&nbsp;</span></div><div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">**Free place available for a Money and Society MOOC graduate**</span></div><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;">DEADLINE APRIL 10TH 2017</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">1.7 million adults remain unbanked in Britain today. Only 41% of British households are saving, while 12 million people lack access to affordable credit. Financial exclusion damages mental and physical health, undermines social relationships and can affect households’ ability to fulfil basic needs such as food and heating. We can and need to do better than this.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://financeinnovationlab.org/fellowship/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #103cc0;">Financial Health Fellowship</span></a><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"> </span><span style="color: black;">brings together the </span><a href="http://financeinnovationlab.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #103cc0;">Finance Innovation Lab</span></a><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">’</span><span style="color: black;">s experience incubating innovation and </span><a href="http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #103cc0;">Toynbee Hall</span></a><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">’</span><span style="color: black;">s</span><span style="color: #2b2b2b;"> </span><span style="color: black;">expertise tackling financial exclusion and exploitation across the UK.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">The six-month Fellowship programme, running May to November 2017, is designed for start-up businesses, but we also welcome applications from later-stage innovators facing significant change and innovators within existing financial organisations who want to repurpose a product or service to support financial health. It will boost strategic know-how, transform leadership skills and prepare Fellows to scale their businesses. You can find out more&nbsp;</span><a href="http://financeinnovationlab.org/fellowship/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #103cc0;">here</span></a><span style="color: #2b2b2b;">.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">&nbsp;</span></div><div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">IFLAS at the University of Cumbria is delighted to host the retreats of the fellowship in our beautiful Lake District campus. We have an active research programme on the topic of currency innovation for sustainable development and outreach via our free Money and Society <a href="http://ho.io/mooc" target="_blank">online course</a>. </span></div><div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">If you did that course then if you are accepted on this competitive programme, you can attend the fellowship for free.&nbsp;The Finance&nbsp;Lab&nbsp;are looking for people with the best ideas to address financial exclusion and exploitation, offering access to fairly priced financial products that are easy to understand and control, and support people’s financial welfare.</span></div><div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">Apply now! Deadline: midnight 10 April 2017.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 14pt; margin-top: 14pt;"><span style="color: black;">MOOC graduates – write “MOOC” in the contribution box of the application form. One free place is reserved for a MOOC&nbsp;alumnus who fulfils all of the Fellowship selection&nbsp;criteria, to be selected at the Fellowship team's discretion.&nbsp;</span></div><span style="color: black;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">Wonder what IFLAS does on this topic? See our <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/99FCA15CAF8E24F4C1257E7E00501101" target="_blank">paper for the United Nations</a> on currency innovation, and this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNN8k5DkNBs" target="_blank">interview about the MOOC</a> with Professor Bendell. </span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">IFLAS is also celebrating the 10th Anniversary of our University's formation with a <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/money-and-society-summit-london-tickets-30950548925" target="_blank">free summit on monetary reform and currency innovation</a>, at our London Campus.&nbsp;60 alumni of the MOOC will&nbsp;be attending (only MOOC alumni may attend).</span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">The summit occurs during our 5 day residential course&nbsp;on sustainable exchange. There is still time to enrol for the non credit bearing option <a href="http://store.cumbria.ac.uk/product-catalogue/general/short-courses/sustainable-exchange-non-credit-bearing-option-2017" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;">Join some of our past students, including many currency innovators...</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e9diew0G_1U/VbeSLbQ4f0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/NXT7VK_46lEz3ZC1iWXG_qrsTVquitdQQCPcB/s1600/docklands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e9diew0G_1U/VbeSLbQ4f0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/NXT7VK_46lEz3ZC1iWXG_qrsTVquitdQQCPcB/s320/docklands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div><div>Want to know more about this area and our future courses? Contact iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</div><div><br /></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/04/free-place-on-professional-fellowship.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-8577995585352822661Mon, 20 Feb 2017 11:26:00 +00002017-04-26T02:13:58.479-07:00The IFLAS Open Lecture series for spring 2017<br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here at the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability we are just putting the final touches to our spring series of free Open Lectures. This year we will be presenting them as part of the University of Cumbria’s 10 Year celebrations, which will gather pace during 2017 towards the official birthday of the 1<sup>st</sup> August.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On Tuesday 21 March, we have our very own Professor Jem Bendell. His talk, entitled “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">The Future of Collaboration for Sustainability: in the company of revolutionaries?</span></b><span style="color: black;">" </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Over twenty years ago, large companies and environmental groups started teaming up to address global problems like deforestation and overfishing. Suddenly both sides realised the benefits of collaboration for sustainability. In 1997 Jem Bendell co-wrote "In the Company of Partners" about this phenomenon, with IFLAS Deputy Director Dr David Murphy.&nbsp;Today such partnerships are widespread. But what are they delivering on their original promise? As indicators of Sustainable Development give little cause for optimism, what&nbsp;might collaboration look like in future? In this 20th anniversary retrospective, Professor Bendell argues for a&nbsp;more revolutionary&nbsp;approach for partnership that focus on transforming economic and political systems to achieve a more rapid transition.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YrBuWTAzxFo/WKrQ68bIyWI/AAAAAAAAADs/EY8hUkjfr2kd5XUzXtG7vu1fR_xGXEzHwCEw/s1600/Jem%2BBendell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YrBuWTAzxFo/WKrQ68bIyWI/AAAAAAAAADs/EY8hUkjfr2kd5XUzXtG7vu1fR_xGXEzHwCEw/s320/Jem%2BBendell.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Jem Bendell</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;"></span><br /></div><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;"></span> <br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">&nbsp;<span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;">Dr Jem Bendell is a Professor of Sustainability Leadership and Founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS). A graduate of the University of Cambridge, he has twenty years of experience working on business sustainability, as a researcher, educator, facilitator, advisor &amp; entrepreneur, having lived &amp; worked in six countries. He is co-author of “Healing Capitalism” and founder of the Post-Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Leadership.&nbsp;Previously he helped create innovative alliances, including the Marine Stewardship Council, to endorse sustainable fisheries and The Finance Innovation Lab, to promote sustainable finance. The WEF appointed him a Young Global Leader in 2012. Professor Bendell now specialises in leadership development, offering coaching and training to senior executives from around the world who have an interest in sustainable enterprise and finance.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Next in the Spring series is a welcome return to a speaker who we first heard back in 2015. Mick Fowler is an award winning author, lecturer and climber. He was voted the ‘</span><a href="http://www.trekandmountain.com/interview-mick-fowler-2/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Mountaineers' Mountaineer</span></i></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">’ in a poll by The Observer newspaper and in 2012 he was awarded the </span><a href="http://www.king-albert.ch/"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">King Albert Mountain Award</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> for his “outstanding contribution to mountaineering”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In 2016 he and Paul Ramsden became the first pair to win a Piolet d'Or award for the third time, after their ascent of the 6,451-metre (21,175 ft) Gave Ding in the Nepal Himalayas. He was a senior leader in HM Revenue and Customs for many years. He has served as President of the </span><a href="http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/ac2/index.php"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Alpine Club</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and led numerous cutting edge mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas. Mick has written two volumes of memoirs - </span><a href="https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/baton-wicks/on-thin-ice.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">On Thin Ice</span></i></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> &amp; </span><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=A6msAwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT247&amp;lpg=PT247&amp;dq=mick+Fowler+vertical+pleasure+Hodder+%26+Stoughton+Ltd&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=yeJoYAuYO9&amp;sig=hfTDAOD9dlbwN1PXsSLpSgTWtWQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0CCoQ6AEwA2oVChMIn8-Y4svuxgIVA7QUCh0CRwWI#v=onepage&amp;q=mick%20Fowler%20vertical%20pleasure%20Hodder%20%26%20Stoughton%20Ltd&amp;f=false"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Vertical Pleasure</span></i></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> - both of which were shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He won the Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature at the 2005 </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_Mountain_Book_Festival" title="Banff Mountain Book Festival"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Banff Mountain Book Festival</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and the best book prize at the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bormio_Mountain_Festival&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" title="Bormio Mountain Festival (page does not exist)"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Bormio Mountain Festival</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (Italy) in 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Eric Vola compiled segments of books by Fowler and Saunders and published the collection in French as "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les Tribulations de Mick et Vic</i>." It won the Grand Prix award at the Passy Book Festival in 2015.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-59IdcfkOCVc/WKrQ8wh3J9I/AAAAAAAAADw/_3CED3RpbqscwxvKEAs7xK7slTN_MEqzwCEw/s1600/Mick%2BFowler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-59IdcfkOCVc/WKrQ8wh3J9I/AAAAAAAAADw/_3CED3RpbqscwxvKEAs7xK7slTN_MEqzwCEw/s320/Mick%2BFowler.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mick Fowler</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mick’s talk, “</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On Thin Ice: Business Ethics and Climbing Ethics</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">” will take place in April, the 25<sup>th</sup> to be exact. He</span><em><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; font-style: normal;"> will be exploring ethics and ethical choices in the field of climbing and parallels in the workplace. He will be discussing what steers climbers to make the ethical choices that they do, the consequences of those choices and whether or not those consequences were foreseeable or intended. Against a backdrop of stunning imagery Mick will be taking us through some of the heated ethical&nbsp;debates in the world of climbing, linking these to business and engaging the audience in discussion of those issues.</span></em><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In May, a speaker new to IFLAS and The University of Cumbria – David Saddington. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Influencing UK &amp;&nbsp;international&nbsp;policy, fronting a pioneering climate media campaign that reached over 3 million people and giving a&nbsp;TEDx talk at London's O2 arena are just a few of David Saddington's&nbsp;achievements as a climate change activist since experiencing a stark introduction to the impacts of climate change as a thirteen year old.&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">​</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As a climate change communicator David works to raise the profile of the issue through blogging for media outlets like the Huffington Post, writing book contributions and organising innovative large scale public awareness events in the centre of UK cities involving outdoor cinema, interactive science experiments and panel debates. He is constantly looking for new and innovative to engage with the public and is currently exploring using Virtual Reality technology to tell the story of climate change.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;After leading education reforms to get climate change on school curricula David has pursued his own academic work studying climate science and a broad range of climate impacts from the environmental to economic, security &amp; health implications.&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">David continues to be a&nbsp;contemporary&nbsp;voice and advocate for climate change action, speaking to a range of audiences around the world - from&nbsp;United Nations Conferences to MTV.&nbsp;David speaks about the opportunities and challenges from tackling climate change from his experience consulting on the implementation of carbon and energy policies and on sustainability initiatives with multinational corporations. He always seeks out innovation and ways to re-energise the conversation around this global challenge.</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXKp-D-XiFE/WKrQ-6Ic0pI/AAAAAAAAAD0/cT0RooQBI8EnmeMRXCc_qHCjKMq5qqCTgCEw/s1600/DS%2BPhoto%2Blarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXKp-D-XiFE/WKrQ-6Ic0pI/AAAAAAAAAD0/cT0RooQBI8EnmeMRXCc_qHCjKMq5qqCTgCEw/s320/DS%2BPhoto%2Blarge.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Saddington</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the 16<sup>th</sup>May,&nbsp;at this&nbsp;talk – “</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;">Turning science into stories: How do we get people to care about climate change?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif;">” David will say that m</span><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ost people are now aware of climate change and the threat it poses - but still, too few of us care enough to take action. </span></div><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">David has been a strong advocate for rapidly moving away from talking about climate change as an environmental issue and instead start getting to grips with the economic, health, security and social aspects. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In this IFLAS open lecture, which follows a year where ‘post-truth’ and ‘populist’ politics have reshaped the western world, David will share his ideas about what all of this means for climate action and how sustainability leaders need to respond. By turning science into stories David believes we can reenergise the conversation around this global challenge and create a more inclusive and diverse voice for change. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For June, we can reveal we will be welcoming iconic fashion designer and environmental activist<span style="font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><strong>Vivienne Westwood</strong> to Ambleside. For further details on this very special event, <a href="http://iflas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/vivienne-westwood-to-come-to-iflas-in.html">click here</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3uleyfSyWk/WOZJLYdvOmI/AAAAAAAAAEU/E2ttd8STn3YQl9OD5LeSQRywhNMJ_wqAQCEw/s1600/Paul%2BRose%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3uleyfSyWk/WOZJLYdvOmI/AAAAAAAAAEU/E2ttd8STn3YQl9OD5LeSQRywhNMJ_wqAQCEw/s320/Paul%2BRose%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Rose</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">...and then&nbsp;on July 4th, we welcome broadcaster, explorer and adventurer <strong>Paul Rose. </strong>Paul's talk is entitled <span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>The very wet side of sustainability: Changing the world - one dive at a time!</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The finest investment for a sustainable future must be ocean protection. Paul explores the last wild, pristine places in the ocean, communicates their value to the world and helps get them protected. To get this done he’s been lost under icebergs, bitten by moray eels, run out of air and attacked by a polar bear. Paul brings to life the challenges and successes of ocean protection with glorious images, film and enlightening tales. He invites us to bring enquiring minds and difficult questions!<br />A man at the front line of exploration and one of the world’s most experienced science expedition leaders, Paul Rose helps scientists unlock and communicate global mysteries in the most remote and challenging regions of the planet.<br /><br /><br />Former Vice President of the Royal Geographical Society – representing Fieldwork and Expeditions, Paul is Expedition Leader for the&nbsp;<em>National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions</em>.<br />In his work for BBC Paul presents television programmes focused on science and the environment.<br />As a Polar Guide, Paul has led Greenland Ice Cap crossings, first ascents of previously unclimbed Arctic mountains and new ski-mountaineering routes.<br /><br /><br />He was the Base Commander of Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, for the British Antarctic Survey for 10 years and was awarded&nbsp;<em>HM The Queen's Polar Medal</em>. For his work with NASA and the Mars Lander project on Mt Erebus, Antarctica, he was awarded the&nbsp;<em>US Polar Medal</em>.<br /><br /><br />A mountain in Antarctica is named after him!</span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">All Open lectures are free to attend, and will take place in the Percival Lecture Theatre, at the Ambleside campus of The University of Cumbria, from 5.30 until around 7pm&nbsp;on the dates indicated.</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To register a place on any of the Open Lectures, contact </span><a href="mailto:iflas@cumbria.ac.uk"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</span></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For further information about IFLAS, see our website </span><a href="http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/iflas"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">www.cumbria.ac.uk/iflas</span></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, follow us on Twitter (@iflasinfo) or on Facebook (@IFLAS.info)</span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;;"> </span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot; , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-iflas-open-lecture-series-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Iflas Info)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5125619096189469953Fri, 06 Jan 2017 12:33:00 +00002017-01-06T04:33:35.247-08:00Money and Society Summit in London - Celebrating 10th Anniversary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Our free online course on Money and Society is now in its 3rd year, with over 300 alumni from around the world. We hosted&nbsp;the first Money and Society Summit in Bali in December, bringing together&nbsp;30 people interested in currency innovation for sustainable development. In April 2017&nbsp;we are organising the same free event in London. It is one of the 10 free public events that&nbsp;IFLAS will be offering in 2017 to celebrate our University's 10th anniversary. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAeCtUamejc/V6B3x7IAghI/AAAAAAAAAl8/MAQhQJJo5Akm1m6D2PNDQPVgHvLYrJvBwCPcB/s1600/MOOCadvert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAeCtUamejc/V6B3x7IAghI/AAAAAAAAAl8/MAQhQJJo5Akm1m6D2PNDQPVgHvLYrJvBwCPcB/s320/MOOCadvert.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The Summit is open to people who have completed, or are enrolled on, our&nbsp;free&nbsp;Money and Society MOOC. The next cohort begins on February 19th 2017. Read about it and enrol&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="http://ho.io/mooc" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />The Summit will also be attended by participants on our Sustainable Exchange certificated course, which is one of the few University qualifications in currency innovation. Read about it <a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/sustainable-exchange/" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />To read more about and register for the Summit on April 22nd see <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/money-and-society-summit-london-tickets-30950548925" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.cumbria.ac.uk//research/centres/iflas/" target="_blank">here</a> to see more about the other events we will&nbsp;run in 2017. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e9diew0G_1U/VbeSLbQ4f0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/NXT7VK_46lEz3ZC1iWXG_qrsTVquitdQQCPcB/s1600/docklands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e9diew0G_1U/VbeSLbQ4f0I/AAAAAAAAAUc/NXT7VK_46lEz3ZC1iWXG_qrsTVquitdQQCPcB/s320/docklands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2017/01/money-and-society-summit-in-london.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-4886849620613846538Fri, 16 Dec 2016 11:19:00 +00002016-12-16T03:26:37.847-08:00Building the Credit Commons - 1st Money and Society Summit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div>On December 12th, IFLAS, Community Forge and Complementary Currency Resource Centre hosted a free event for alumni of&nbsp;the University's&nbsp;<a href="http://ho.io/mooc" target="_blank">free online course</a>, and other interested persons. </div><div><br /></div><div>The course and summit looked at the potential for innovation in currency and credit to promote sustainable development. In particular, the summit focused on the concept of building a "Credit Commons" whereby people and organisations can issue credit to each other in ways that enable trade and sharing without needing access to money or&nbsp;having to pay&nbsp;interest. </div><div><br /></div><div>Co-author of the online course, Matthew Slater, presented this concept (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHdW7XY6ig" target="_blank">video here</a>). Professor Bendell facilitated the meeting, which convened 25 people from across the region.&nbsp; He drew on their joint UN <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/99FCA15CAF8E24F4C1257E7E00501101" target="_blank">paper on collaborative credit systems</a>, to set the scene of currency innovation for sustainable development. </div><div><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DFHdW7XY6ig" width="560"></iframe> <br /><div><br />One of the questions from a Bitcoin proponent led to discussion which inspire Matthew to write a blog on what cryptocurrency enthusiasts could learn from old school monetary activists and local currency practitioners, who have been working on this topic <a href="http://matslats.net/node/387" target="_blank">for a decade or more</a>. <br /><br />The discussions focused on how to engage people in an idea and initiative that&nbsp;are still very new. Three ways that people are becoming interested in the concept and project to build the Credit Commons were discussed.&nbsp; </div><div><br /></div><div>First, some people are (or will be) working on complementary currencies or collaborative credit systems, and want to align their work with the credit commons for mutual benefit. </div><div><br /></div><div>Second, some people are interested in applying their skills, resources or networks to develop the credit commons concept and initiative. </div><div><br /></div><div>Third, some people are interested in simply staying updated on how this initiative progresses. </div><div><br /></div><div>For the first group, recommendations on how to engage include:<br />1 - read the credit commons whitepaper<br />2 - study the Money and Society MOOC (next iteration Feb 17th 2017)<br />3 - use a self assessment tool to help align your own work on complementary currencies with building the Credit Commons (this tool is in preparation)<br />4 - share your insights, for instance by a blog, on any changes in approach, software or governance to align your efforts with building the credit commons and send&nbsp;to matslats at fastmail dot com<br />5 - register your initiative on <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=http://www.creditcommons.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1481972882980000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE3UdY6U4g86Lob2uURSnMgpCyrww" href="http://www.creditcommons.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www.creditcommons.net</span></a> and add a Credit Commons Champion badge to your website and app (linking to <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=http://www.creditcommons.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1481972882980000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE3UdY6U4g86Lob2uURSnMgpCyrww" href="http://www.creditcommons.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www.creditcommons.net</span></a>); this registration system and&nbsp;badge will be launched in the new year<br />6 - include in future funding proposals the budget for upgrading systems to be able to relate to a future Credit Commons clearing system on a blockchain </div><div><br /></div><div>For the second group, recommendations on how to engage include:<br />1 - read the Credit Commons whitepaper<br />2 - study the Money and Society MOOC (next iteration Feb 17th 2017)<br />3 - clarify what skills, resources or networks you can offer to the key functions of either communications, software development, fundraising or organisational development/management, to what degree (how much unpaid time) and join the Credit Commons task force by sharing these offers on an online Slack group (email matslats at fastmail dot com to request an invite)<br />4 - tell other relevant people about the whitepaper, MOOC and activities of the Credit Commons and work on things agreed within the slack&nbsp;&nbsp; </div><div><br /></div><div>For, the third group, recommendations on how to engage include:<br />1 - read the Credit Commons whitepaper<br />2 - if still interested, email matslats at fastmail dot com to request asking to be kept uptodate (rather than join the task force)</div><div><br /></div><div>For any interested persons who want to deepen their knowledge and become qualified in the topic, then the 5 day residential <a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/sustainable-exchange/" target="_blank">Certificate in Sustainable Exchange</a> starts in London on April 19th 2017.&nbsp; </div><div><br /></div><div>The 2017 Money and Society Summit will take place on April 22nd 2017, at the University's London Docklands Campus. It is free but only open to alumni of the Money and Society MOOC and relevant practitioners. It will focus on ideas for better communicating the Credit Commons and relevant collaborative credit initiatives. It is hosted by Professor Bendell, Matthew Slater and Leander Bindewald. To register, email iflas@cumbria.ac.uk <br /><br />To sign up to the Money and Society MOOC (a free online course starting again February 17th 2017), see <a href="http://ho.io/mooc" target="_blank">here</a>. </div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2016/12/building-credit-commons-1st-money-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-5610395054122218010Fri, 16 Dec 2016 08:34:00 +00002016-12-18T00:56:17.624-08:00A Year of Leadership Research and Commentary at the University of Cumbria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">For many people 2016 was a year for wondering how we end up with the leaders we have. Some respond to that concern by calling for more and better leadership. At the University of Cumbria, leadership development has been a cross-cutting theme of our work for years, due to our focus on the public professions. With the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) we extend that into the field of private sector management, supporting the performance of business leaders in addressing social and environmental issues. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sMRCSg3gAVQ/WFOmzONkjmI/AAAAAAAAAsE/nWAVE97j46cvO7PgaZNE0-Qr6UIh3NxSgCLcB/s1600/David-Cameron-EU-referendum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sMRCSg3gAVQ/WFOmzONkjmI/AAAAAAAAAsE/nWAVE97j46cvO7PgaZNE0-Qr6UIh3NxSgCLcB/s320/David-Cameron-EU-referendum.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Resignation</td></tr></tbody></table></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Although primarily focused on education, the University of Cumbria is increasingly active in research on leadership and its development. The following are some of the highlights of our research outputs in 2016. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Leading schools is a key task in any country, and difficult within a context of budget cuts.&nbsp;Dr Paul Cammack, Senior Lecturer with our Institute of Education, worked on a new ‘</span><a href="http://www.basque.inspectorate.erasmusplus.hezkuntza.net/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=8d77ee4b-ab31-401c-87fa-8a5e491c049a&amp;groupId=200602"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Guide for the Evaluation of School Leaders</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">’. This was an output from an Erasmus+ Project called ‘Evaluation of School Leaders and Teachers’ Practice’ with School Inspectors from Italy, Basque Country in Spain, Italy, Romania, Lithuania and the Open University, Cyprus. You can read more about the project </span><a href="http://www.basque.inspectorate.erasmusplus.hezkuntza.net/web/guest/inicio"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">and follow them on </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/EOSLATP_UoC"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">twitter</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. Also in the education sector, Dr Sally Elton-Chalcraft presented research with Cumbria colleagues on the use of coaching techniques in leadership, at the British Educational Research Association. Sally can be contacted </span><a href="http://my.cumbria.ac.uk/Courses/SubjectAreas/Education/Meetthestaff/CPDResearch/SallyEltonChalcraft.aspx"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">for a copy. </span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">At IFLAS, one of our research activities is to chronicle the leadership development practices we use on the suite of MBA programmes taught out of Ambleside. The Institute Manager Philippa Chapman and Dr Grace Hurford presented lessons from that on the University’s “Perspectives in Experiential Learning in Higher Education” conference last March. To read about this approach, contact </span><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/academic-staff/all-staff-members/iflas/philippa-chapman.php"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Philippa</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. </span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">As a Professor with IFLAS, I continued to develop a theory of sustainability leadership, working with Dr Neil Sutherland of UWE and Richard Little of Impact International. In the process, I presented a conference paper on the impasse in leadership studies, which is available </span><a href="http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/2171/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. In a related vein, we are now in the final stages of editing a special issue of the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Sustainability Accounting Management and Policy Journal</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> (SAMPJ) on Leadership and Sustainability.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">That special issue came out of the Leading Wellbeing Festival in 2015, and in 2016 IFLAS continued to work with the Brathay Trust on curating engaged scholarship in this field, with the </span><a href="https://www.brathay.org.uk/Event/leading-wellbeing"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">“Leading Wellbeing in Rural Contexts”</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> conference in November 2016. Opened by our new Vice Chancellor, Professor&nbsp;Julie Mennell, and co-facilitated by IFLAS-associated Senior Lecturer Tony Randall, the event has inspired a special issue of the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Journal of Corporate Citizenship</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. That will be edited by IFLAS Deputy Director Dr David Murphy, Professor Alison Marshall and Dr Elaine Bidmead, of our Cumbrian Centre for Health Technologies (CaCHeT). The </span><a href="https://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/journals/journal-of-corporate-citizenship#calls-for-papers"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">deadline for abstracts</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> is the end of January. Our 2017 event theme and date will be announced in the new year.</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The UK referendum result on leaving the EU triggered a lot of debate about leadership, and there were leadership contests for the two largest parties. In the media, many refrains of leadership were heard, with ideas like “strong” leadership quoted unquestioningly. Therefore, I wrote an article for the Huffington Post that critiqued the narratives about leadership and suggested social movements require a </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jem-bendell/leadership-after-brexit-m_b_10736844.html"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">different form</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. Then I was asked by the Young Global Leaders network of the World Economic Forum to share thoughts on spirituality and transformative leadership, also on the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jem-bendell/monty-pythons-lessons-for_b_11065340.html"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Huffington Post</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. I returned to some of the themes on a more conscious and reflective form of leadership in a Keynote speech on Climate Leadership, at Griffith University in Australia. I shared my background notes on the talk </span><a href="https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/engaging-the-climate-tragedy/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">here</span></a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In 2017 I begin a research project, backed by </span><a href="http://www.impactinternational.com/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Impact International</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">, to explore how successful leaders in business, government and civil society, who operate internationally, perceive leadership on global dilemmas, like climate change, inequality, financial crisis and extremism. I would welcome enquiries from anyone interested in cosponsoring this work to help us reach a wider audience (</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">). I will be sharing some of the initial insights of this research with colleagues at a one day event “Questioning Leadership” on July 18th in Carlisle. The event is primarily for internal collaboration, and will be&nbsp;marketed in February, but if interested already, contact </span><a href="http://my.cumbria.ac.uk/Courses/SubjectAreas/Education/Meetthestaff/CPDResearch/PeteBoyd.aspx"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Professor Pete Boyd</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">.</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In 2017 I anticipate welcoming two new PhD students to IFLAS to work with me on leadership development in the face of environmental dilemmas. Both the sustainability and leadership fields have been pervaded by ideas of potency and positivity. At first glance, that may sound sensible. But</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">in our research, we will be exploring how this framing is being shaken by recent information, and how it might even be restricting creative and collective responses. These PhD students will join a growing team, including Jo Chaffer, who started with IFLAS in 2016 to conduct doctoral research on leadership development through outdoor influences on identity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">If interested in experiencing our approach to leadership development, I recommend our 6 day course in September, which forms the start of either a </span><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate/sustainable-leadership/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Post Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Leadership</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> or the new </span><a href="https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate/sustainable-leadership-development/"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">MA in Leadership Development</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">. We were delighted that a senior leadership trainer at Impact wrote an article explaining why, in his opinion it is such a <a href="http://www.impactinternational.com/blog/2016/04/6-things-look-leadership-degrees" target="_blank">good course for reflective professionals</a>. You can see a video of where we are based and why study with us <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IFLAS.info/videos/1120591578002843/" target="_blank">here</a>. If interested, please get in touch via </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">iflas@cumbria.ac.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">&nbsp; </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">I look forward to engaging in 2017. </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Professor Jem Bendell </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Founder, IFLAS</span></div></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-year-of-leadership-research-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309768691110475508.post-7254290575983209980Thu, 10 Nov 2016 18:46:00 +00002016-11-10T10:46:40.971-08:00Money and Society Newsletter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>IFLAS runs a free online course twice a year on what we think is one of the most important topics in the world at a time of a collapse in support for neoliberalism. Here is a newsletter for people who have completed the course (200+)...&nbsp;</i><br /><b><br /></b><b>The First Summit&nbsp;</b><br /><br />It is just over a month until the free Money and Society summit in Bali. Your MOOC co-authors Jem and Matthew will gather with complementary currency experts in the region, including Stephen DeMeuleneure. <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/money-and-society-summit-tickets-26399730304">The agenda</a> is now available. The Summit is mainly for people who have done the MOOC. However, please tell your friends and colleagues if they are interested in the topic, as they can attend if they prepare by watching a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OphFe0aEI&amp;feature=youtu.be">video of the first lesson</a>.<br /><br /><b>A European Summit?</b><br /><br />We could consider running a similar free 1 day gathering in 2017 in either UK (April or July), or Spain or Greece (mid September). Please let us know by November 30th if you would definitely attend one, and also if you could consider a donation to help with the costs. Email matslats@fastmail.com<br /><br /><b>Get Qualified</b><br /><br />Now that you have done the MOOC you could progress and get a qualification, by taking the residential course in London for 5 days from April 19th. As Di said, its "bloody brilliant". More info here: <a href="http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd-and-short-courses/sustainable-exchange/">here</a>.<br /><br /><b>News and Views</b><br /><br />Professor Bendell wrote an <a href="https://1drv.ms/b/s!AsCbAv6NZ38UgcRSSS444byXCHaX5w">article on fintech regulation</a> in the European Finance Review.<br /><br />Thought experiment, what happens <a href="https://t.co/aI8QzmcfUq">when a central bank splits in two</a>?<br /><br />Continuing <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/16/news/economy/central-banks-debt-dumping/index.html">bad news</a> about the dollar's status as the global reserve currency.<br /><br />Effect of the recession on the real economy is that <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-slump-sends-big-ships-to-scrap-heap-1471192256">more large ships are being scrapped</a>. Bear in mind that large ships are the most polluting of all transport.<br /><br />Eight years of failed bailouts are leading some to <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/article/eric-sprott-we-are-now-paying-funeral-keynesian-theory">question keynsian economics</a> - if a bailout using money borrowed from the self-same recipients is really Keynesian! Japan <a href="https://ellenbrown.com/2016/07/25/japans-helicopter-money-play-road-to-hyperinflation-or-cure-for-debt-deflation">edges closer</a> to a bailout of ordinary people, helicopter money.&nbsp;</div><br />For a longer read, here is Nick Szabo, expert in currency and cryptocurrency, <a href="http://unenumerated.blogspot.gr/2016/07/artifacts-of-wealth-patterns-in_15.html">looking at ancient artefacts and speculating about their function as a store of value</a>. We found it very thought provoking, but always be aware of the absence of credit from such discussions. So far archeologists have only ever found corpses who have taken their commodities to the grave, never their credit.<br /><br />Finally if you like videos we found this <a href="https://youtu.be/Wo3YGkECC_0">interview with economist Alex Salter</a> enlightnening, on an Austrian perspective of central banking.<br /><br /><b>The Next MOOC</b><br /><br />February 17th is when we kick off again. Please tell your family, colleages, friends and enemies to sign up for the amazing experience. The link for info: <a href="http://ho.io/mooc">http://ho.io/mooc</a><br /><br /><b>The Next Newsletter</b><br /><br />In late January we will contact you to ask you to consider co-tutoring during the MOOC. In 6 months we will say hi again with a newsletter. Thanks to Martin for sending in some links for this one. Please submit really interesting articles to matslats@fastmail.com <br /><br /><i>From your MOOCmeisters,&nbsp;</i><br /><i>Jem and Matthew</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>PS: like this and want to subscribe? Sorry you cant, as you have to complete the MOOC to become an alumnus&nbsp;</i></div>http://iflas.blogspot.com/2016/11/money-and-society-newsletter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jem Bendell)0